HOW, WHEN AND BY 
WHOM WAS THE****** 
BIBLE WRITTEN******** 
>j»j«>j»j»j»James Todd, D, D. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UiNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



When, How, and By Whom 
Was the Bible Written 



REV. JAMES TODD, D. D. 

Author of "Hand Book for Presbyterians," "The Relation Between Education 
and Morality,'* Etc. 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. W. D. THOMAS, Ph. D. t D. D. 



i^-*- x 



FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
Chicago : : New York : : Toronto 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature 



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T55 



COPYRIGHT 1896 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

ALL RIGHTS RESEVRED 



PREFACE. 

"Of making many books on the Bible there is no 
end." And why should there be until there is an end 
to making books against the Bible ? But the author of 
the following pages did not originally intend to pub- 
lish their contents. They were first prepared and de- 
livered as a series of Sunday evening sermons to his 
own congregation — which, in the evening, is largely 
composed of a promiscuous gathering. 

Not even the very encouraging reception they then 
met with decided him to publish them in book form; 
for, what may be listened to appreciatively is not al- 
ways acceptable to a wider circle of readers. But many 
hearers of them when delivered expressed themselves as 
having been so much benefited by them ; some who were 
doubters of the Bible acknowledged that many of their 
doubts had been removed and their objections met on 
hearing the discourses. One of the series was preached 
at Presbytery, and the brethren unanimously requested 
that it be published and circulated to help counteract 
the sceptical tendencies of the present day. Others 
whose judgment in such matters is worthy of the great- 
est respect and confidence, urged the publication of the 
series, and believing that such truths are much needed 
in the church and the world, he resolved to try how 
much they are wanted. 

3 



PREFACE 



There is no pretense to originality in the book, and 
no one chapter is treated exhaustively; indeed, it is 
freely admitted, the discussion is necessarily fragment- 
ary and incomplete. The author, in the midst of a pas- 
torate, with many exacting claims, has merely availed 
himself, through research and study of evidence, an- 
cient and modern, in support of the historic character 
and inspiration of the original text of the Bible, and 
presented it in his own style. He has culled from many 
fields, and expresses himself as under special obligation 
to the historic and scientific works of Prof. Sayce, Sir 
Wm. Dawson, and others who have made the Christian 
world their debtor by their invaluable contributions 
(almost demonstrations) in support of Biblical truth. 

While this volume will probably satisfy neither the 
higher nor the lower school of Biblical criticism, his 
investigation has led the writer towards the "golden 
mean" which is generally nearest the truth. He has 
aimed at allowing the facts of history and science to 
speak for themselves. He has not written merely for 
the learned professor, for the critical preacher, nor for 
the self-satisfied sceptic, but for the large mass of 
churchgoers and non^churchgoers who honestly desire 
more light on the obscure question, " Whence came our 
Old and New Testaments?" In doing so he has kept as 
free as possible from the use of the technical terms used 
generally in philosophical and theological discussions. 
He desires to express his thanks to his friends Ira D. 
Jennings, B. A. and Kev. W. D. Thomas, Ph. D., D. D. 
for their highly valued assistance in reading the manu- 
script and for their many helpful suggestions. Dr. 



PREFACE 5 

Thomas also kindly wrote an Introduction for which 
the author is grateful; and in the hope and prayer that 
Providence may use these pages in restoring the Bible 
to its rightful place in perplexed and doubting minds; 
and in confirming the faith of the weak and waver- 
ing they are given to the public. J. T. 





CONTENTS. 


Chapter. 
I. 


When was the Bible Weitten? . . 13 


IT. 


By Whom was the Bible Weitten? . . 28 


III. 


The Old Testament Manusceipts— as 




Histoey 44 



IV. The Old Testament Manusceipts — as 

Peophecy. ...... 57 

V. The Weitings of the New Testament, 

Especially its Undisputed Weitings. 69 
VI. The Stoey of the Manusceipts of the 

Bible 80 

VII. When and How was the Bible Canonized ? 93 
VIII. The Bible vebsus its Ceitics. . . 106 

(a) Its Scientific Cbitics. 
(6) Its Textual Critics. 

IX. The Bible veesus its Ceitics, continued. 123 

(a) The Critics of its Moral Teachings. 
(6) The Critics of its Social, Teachings. 

X. What is the Bible to Us? . . . 138 



INTRODUCTION. 

No book lias had so much written concerning it as 
the Bible. Out of the fire of persecution it has come 
forth, whatever dross it had alone burned away, clad in 
the youth and perfection of heaven, and girt afresh for 
its God=sent mission. The preacher and pastor, from 
the nature of his vocation, has to do most of his think- 
ing in a fragmentary fashion; he comes from week to 
week before his people and dispenses truth piecemeal 
concerning God and man, time and eternity, sin and re- 
demption. As the result of fragmentary thinking we 
have some of the choicest thoughts in our literature 
Conspicuous among them we may mention Eckermann's 
"Conversations with Goethe," Coleridge's ''Table- talk," 
Pascal's "Thoughts," Southey's "Commonplace Book,' 
and Dr. Holmes' unrivalled gem of philosophy and wit, 
" The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table." 

This volume is the product of searching and earnest 
thought on the great question of a supernatural revela- 
tion, and was delivered during several successive Sab- 
bath evenings to the people of the author's own charge 
It is constructive; it builds up but does not tear down; 
it is made in the interest of conservative criticism, and 
shows that faith in the Bible is not only rational, but al- 
so ennobling and uplifting. It is written, not for the 

9 



10 INTRODUCTION 

learned few, but for the great mass of men and women 
who profoundly ask the question, " Has God spoken in 
very deed to man?" All the salient features of the crit- 
ical assault upon the Bible come here under review: 
manuscripts, original languages, integrity of its con- 
tents, authorship, compilation, editorial work, inspira- 
tion, and revelation — all are ably sifted, cast into the 
crucible, and brought forth by the authors with the 
stamp of eternal truth on them. 

Our age is vacillating, disintegrating, casts doubts on 
the essentials of our holy religion: this book has the 
true ring to it; it is positive, constructive, and stands up 
for the great verities of history, of human nature, of 
philosophy, and of the scheme of redemption as unfold- 
ed in the pages of the Bible. I had the pleasure of 
reading this volume in manuscript and felt that it 
would fill an important niche in the religious life of our 
age. A book that meets the sceptic face to face on his 
own ground, that finds the granite rock of truth and 
builds thereon the indestructible superstructure of a di- 
vine revelation, and that brings the sinner to the help- 
ful touch of the Almighty Savior is surely worthy of 
earnest thought, and this volume does it in a convinc- 
ing, vigorous, manly fashion. I trust it will find, as it 
richly deserves, a large circle of readers. 

The old Bible — by whose truths our forefathers mold- 
ed their lives and on whose great and precious promises 
they pillowed their feverish hearts in death — that tells 



INTRODUCTION 11 

us of God's doings in creation, in providence, in his- 
tory, and in redemption is here shown to be still true. 
Our confidence in it now is greater than ever, and all 
we need is to transform its precious precepts into the 
deeds of life to know and to feel that it is a supernat- 
ural message from God to His lost child — man. 
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of 

eternal life." 

W. D. Thomas. 
La Crosse, Wis. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN ? 
" And the Lord said unto Moses, write thou these words." Moses. 

Sir Walter Scott on his dying bed said to Lockhart 
his friend, " Bring me the book." In reply, Lockhart 
asked, "What book?" But though Scott was a genius 
who knew most books, he answered, " Lockhart, there is 
only one book — the Bible." 

Thomas Carlyle said, "The Bible is all men's book." 

John Ruskin said concerning it, " This book has 
been the accepted guide of the moral intelligence of 
Europe for some fifteen hundred years." 

Justice David Brewer testified of it, "No book con- 
tains more truths, or is more worthy of confidence than 
the Bible." 

William Ewart Gladstone spoke of it, "I have served 
my country for sixty years, and been a prominent mem- 
ber of its government for over forty years. In that time 
I have mingled with the master minds of this world, 
and I know of only five who do not accept the Bible, 
and the God, and the Christ of the Bible." 

It is this book of which I propose giving a brief 
account: this book, whose disciples with a few exceptions 
form the empire of genius, the realm of intellect, and 
the fabric of morals and religion — the book acknowl- 
edged by the greatest minds to be the best book in the 
best age of the world's history. 

13 



14 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

When, how, and by whom, did mankind receive this 
Bible? 

The first and second chapters of this volume shall 
merely narrate the answer to that question without re- 
gard to evidence, and the following chapters shall at- 
tempt to prove the narrative. 

The Bible consists of a collection of sixty-six books, 
thirty=nine in the Old, and twenty=seven in the New 
Testament. The large preponderance of recognized 
writers on this question tell us the Old Testament books 
were given to the world during a period of 1,500 years 
before Christ. But it is almost beyond question that 
the book of Job was written at a much earlier date. At 
the dawn of Israelitish history Abraham was called to 
go forth from his Chaldean home to the promised land 
of his age, and with the going forth of this patriarch 
began the writing of this Bible. The historical portions 
of the book form, in large part, a history of the Israel- 
itish people in their relations to God, and to the nations 
with whom they came into contact. It was not, how- 
ever, a final and complete history of those relations, but 
one in process of development, which pointed to a fu- 
ture and fuller unfolding of them. It is such a history 
of man in the family, of man in the nation, of man in 
the wider sphere of the world; a history with its univer- 
sal application for all time to man, in all his relation- 
ships of human life. Hence the development of this 
history must be coextensive with human experience, 
and the progress of its truth may be as great as the 
march of thought without occasioning any surprise in 
the minds of the most devout believers, 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 15 

Abraham was the principal founder of these relations 
of which the Old Testament is in such large part a his- 
tory. Indeed, so strongly is this thought emphasized 
in the Bible that he is called, "the Father of God's 
Faithful." Therefore the reasonableness of Abraham 
writing his own family history, in an intelligible, though 
it may be abbreviated form, can hardly be rationally 
gainsaid. The authorship of the first five books of the 
Bible is, we believe, accurately ascribed to Moses: but 
there is no reasonable doubt, that Moses used in his 
writings all the necessary material which history had 
placed at his disposal. 

Indeed, such material available for both Moses and 
Abraham must have been very considerable. For, 
whether the deluge was universal or local in its extent, 
whether the Babel of tongues was natural or supernat- 
ural, whether the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah 
was miraculous or not, that these things occurred some- 
how is a matter of history apart from the Bible narra- 
tive. The excoriated landscape still visible around that 
valley of Sodom, the universal testimony given by ex- 
pert geologists, and the recently discovered imperish- 
able stone writings of nations contemporaneous with 
these people prove these narratives historical by whom- 
soever written. By these facts the historic character of 
even the pre-Mosaic portions of the Bible is verified, 
their literary sources revealed, and the time when they 
were written. 

It is sometimes objected that the peoples of those 
days were too primitive to know the art of writing. But 
it shall be shown in other parts of this book that long 



16 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

before the days of Abraham those eastern people from 
whence he came forth had attained to a very creditable 
state of civilization. 

It is unreasonable to suppose that in such a condition 
of society Abraham was ignorant of this art. He was 
the appointed patriarch of a believing race, and the 
principal incidents in his life, which was so noble, and 
was designed to be the uplifting force of his generation 
would be compiled and recorded by competent hands 
to teach the unborn hosts. That this was done is sug- 
gested in the command to Moses " to write in the book 
of memorial" This "memorial" book was doubtless 
the historic record of God's dealings with Israel since 
the call of Abraham, and we read that Moses com- 
manded that those records be continued. As the ma- 
terial accumulated it would become necessary to con- 
dense the writings, and narrate only the most import- 
ant events. Also those incidents relating more especially 
to the religious life of the people would naturally find a 
place in such a book. For in this Bible as the history of 
man develops, religion is shown to be the soul of his- 
tory, the central power in the affairs of the nation, the 
deepest foundation of human life. Doubtless the nec- 
essary abridgement of the narratives accounts to 
some extent for the Mosaic legislation being re- 
corded piece-meal, and mingled with the history of the 
wilderness period. A careful reading of the five books 
of Moses reveals that they were largely written as the 
history was made, and not as Bancroft wrote the history 
of the United States, and much of the ceremonial legis- 
lation for those people was passed to suit their immedi- 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 17 

ate needs. As a proof of this the eminent naturalist Dr. 
Tristram has observed that the list of clean and unclean 
beasts contained in the 14th chapter of Deuteronomy 
mentions nine different animals which are not referred 
to in the parallel passage in Leviticus. Six of these are 
animals still to be found in the wilderness, and in the 
eastern plateau, and could never have been inhabitants 
of the hilly, wooded, and cultivated Western Palestine, 
nor of Egypt. They are birds exclusively of the desert 
open plain, or of bare rocky heights, and were added 
to the list mentioned in Deuteronomy after they had 
been met with in the wilderness, and many years jour- 
neyings there had made the Israelites familiar with 
them. Moreover, as Sir Wm. Dawson has pointed out, 
the book of Exodus is an Egyptian book, which contains 
numerous words and phrases descriptive of Egyptian 
manners, and colored with Israelitish ideas of desert 
life. For example, the plagues narrated in the book of 
Exodus are nearly all natives of the climate and soil of 
Egypt. It is plain that the golden calf set up at the 
foot of Mount Sinai by the rebellious Israelites is 
Egyptian, and was made in imitation of the Egyptian 
deity — Apis. If we observe the references of the writer 
to the Pharaohs, to the Nile whose waters were turned 
into blood, if we think upon these revelations of Egyp- 
tian tyranny and civilization, we believe common sense 
— without either scholarship, or religious faith — compels 
us to decide that in this book we have an account of a 
forced exodus of people from lower Egypt when that 
country was in a high state of civilization and prosper- 
ity. Indeed, so real is the narrative that one of the 



18 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

strongest opponents to the inspiration of the Bible ad- 
mits that it contains nothing which does not correspond 
with the court of Pharaoh. Huxley himself said, "The 
book of the Exodus is the best guide book to Egypt." 
Now, if we can find the time when the exodus from 
Egypt took place, we can tell when the first five books 
of our Bible were given to us. This may be done ap- 
proximately though the exact time cannot be stated with 
absolute certainty. 

There is the strongest possible evidence that the 
Hyksos — the Shepherd kings of Egypt — reigned in the 
time of Abraham. Manetho, an ancient, yet a reliable 
Egyptian historian, informs us that these kings reigned 
for a little over two centuries, and were succeeded by 
the eighteenth succession or dynasty of native Egyptian 
kings. Soon after this, Joseph, the Hebrew, came to 
Egypt, and Jacob his father, and his family, settled 
there in the time of Thothmes III., one of the greatest 
kings of that succession. A revolution soon afterwards 
occurred which resulted in introducing a new dynasty 
of which Barneses I. and Barneses II. were the ear- 
liest kings. These were the kings or Pharoahs who 
" knew not Joseph." They were the Napoleons of 
Egypt and powerful oppressors of the subject races. 
Maneptah succeeded Barneses II., and according to the 
papyrus recently discovered by Harris, there occurred 
at that time a great exodus from Egypt which was fol- 
lowed by national anarchy. Therefore, it is almost 
certain that the Pharoah named Siptah Maneptah, 
otherwise spoken of as Amenophis, (or Merenptah), 
was the ruler when the Israelites left Egypt, in the 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE V/RITTEN? 19 

13th century B. C. 1 It is also as certain as that 
Lee surrendered to Grant that the exodus took place 
sometime during the four short reigns which succeeded 
that of Rameses II., and that the five books of Moses 
were written about 1300 years before Christ. 

Indeed, if we are to have a historical basis for the 
Scriptures, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, 
to find another period of time — other than the wilder- 
ness years of these Israelites — when the Mosaic and 
Levitical legislation could have been appropriately 
enacted for, and imposed upon, these people, with either 
reason or effective purpose. 

And just as these writings were begun, so were they 
continued to be given, and also preserved, as the history 
of the people produced them, and their circumstances 
required additional revelation. 

The writings of Moses were deposited in the ark or 
in some other safe place, and most sacredly guarded. 
Joshua wrote when it became necessary, and added the 
important facts of the growing history. His book was 
added to the five previously written, and thus was 
formed the Hexateuch. The first six books of the 
Bible contain the law, the religious ceremonies to be 
observed, and the noteworthy history of the nation: 
and for centuries afterwards these formed the inspired - 
book for these Israelites in their new and conquered 
land. 

The books of the Judges, of Ruth, and of Samuel, are 
also almost entirely historical, and cover a period of time 

a See " Pharaoh of the Hard Heart," by Prof. Petrie, in the Cen- 
tury for August, 1896. 



20 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

generally estimated at about 400 years after the en- 
trance to Canaan. The altered conditions of the people 
are clearly set forth in the recorded history contained 
in these books. The government of the kingdom by 
judges, the increased liberties enjoyed by both rulers 
and people, their contamination by the idolatrous wor- 
ship of their heathen neighbors, and their ultimate de- 
sire for a monarch to rule over them, are all fully de- 
scribed. That they were afterwards preserved to the na- 
tion is evident from the references made, by the succes- 
sive writers of the Scriptures, to Moses and Aaron, to 
the commandments, and the ordinances which had 
been left for the people, as also from the development 
of the religious life and history of the Israelites therein 
revealed. 

As we read the books of the Kings, we find higher 
ideals concerning both self government and Grod had 
been reached. This record to posterity is also an epi- 
tomized history covering another period of 450 years 
from the last days of King David to the beginning of 
the exile of the Israelites into Babylon. A single para- 
graph in the closing verses of this book records an in- 
cident which throws much light on the time when it 
was written. In 2nd Kings, ch. 25th, and v. 27th, 
we read, " Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year 
that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoia- 
chin king of Judah out of prison." "And he did eat 
bread continually before him all the days of his life." 
Now there is abundance of history to show that this 
reign began 561 years before Christ. Therefore, if we 
suppose the reign reached the limit of an ordinary 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 21 

generation, the latter part at least of the book must 
have been written between 5G1 and 538 B. C. . And this 
period of time of which the book or books of Kings 
contain the history, is most interesting in value to all 
lovers of the Bible, and should be so also to all who ap- 
preciate literature. During those centuries some of the 
greater prophets spake their matchless utterances, the 
Psalms, inimitable as poetic gems, were written and 
sung, the magnificent temple of Solomon was built, and 
its gorgeous services, typical and predictive of the com- 
ing Messiah and our glorious Christianity, were, inaugu- 
rated. These 500 years — from the eleventh century B. C. 
to the captivity — form the richest period in Jewish lit- 
erature, the most spiritual era of the Jewish church, 
and as a consequence the grandest epoch of the na- 
tion's chequered history. 

The Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were also written dur- 
ing this period. The books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremi- 
ah and Esther were written during the captivity. Ezra, 
and Nehemiah, and probably the Chronicles were written 
after the return from Babylon to Judea, or between the 
fifth and fourth centuries B. C, though the Chronicles 
contain the genealogy of the Hebrew race, as also the 
brief history of that nation. [ 

After the return of the Israelites from captivity, there 
is an unbroken connection between the Bible and con- 
temporary literature. There was ready access to the 
Old Testament Scriptures in the service of the second 
temple. Nehemiah and Ezra, who represented and con- 
served in their age all that was best in Jewish life, were 
contemporaneous with Herodotus. Therefore, the writ- 



22 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

ings of the various authors of the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures are placed within the reach of all, and as matters 
of history are at least as reliable as that seldom disputed 
Egyptian historian. King Josiah discovered the Scrip- 
ture writings before the captivity; Ezra afterwards read 
the law, and with Nehemiah, and the great men of the 
Jewish synagogue formed a canon of Old Testament 
Scriptures about 420 years before Christ. These were 
afterwards read daily in the synagogue and temple serv- 
ice of the Jewish Church. 

However, the books of the Old Testament were not 
written in the order of time which their arrangement in 
the Bible seems to indicate. It seems beyond question 
that the books of the later prophets were written before 
the book of Kings. Isaiah had doubtless written about 
three centuries before the Jewish canon of Scripture 
was formed. Joel, Hosea, and Amos were his contem- 
poraries. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah had been 
dead for over 150 years. But probably without any re- 
gard to the order in which they were written, Nehemiah 
and others collected and arranged them, and placed 
them in the library of the temple in which form they 
have been transmitted to their posterity. 

However, the book of Job requires a special word in 
passing. It contains scarcely one word which justifies 
its having been placed where it is among the other 
books of the Bible. There is nothing Jewish in it. In 
every particular, in style, form and matter it differs es- 
sentially from all the other books of the Bible. It has 
no religious types to set forth, no history to narrate, 
only that of a lone man's bloodied struggles with the 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 23 

woes of life, as he battles to reconcile them philosophi- 
cally with the hidden benevolence of his God. 

The strongest evidence places Job between Abraham 
and Moses, or about 1700 years before Christ. Job's 
comforters, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Elihu — were without 
doubt descendants of Abraham, who occupied the terri- 
tory towards the Persian Gulf. Indeed, it is of the 
highest probability that they lived in the days immedi- 
ately following Abraham, and long before Moses, 
though the book is placed long after the Pentateuch. 

For four centuries before Christ nothing was added 
to the Hebrew Bible. Through this stormy period which 
began upon the division of the Empire of Alexander 
the Great, when Palestine became a province of Syria, 
down to our Savior's coming, these books were most 
providentially preserved. Though many attempts were 
made to destroy every sacred roll of the Jewish people, 
the Septuagint version of the Old Testament Scriptures 
was given, which translation secured certainty to their 
existence until the birth of our Lord. 

The New Testament Scriptures are commonly believed 
to have been written in the order in which we have 
them in the Bible. But that is a popular misapprehen- 
sion of the facts. Several epistles were written before 
any of the gospels, and the gospel by St. John is the 
latest production of the sacred books. 

The earliest of the New Testament writings is the 
first letter by Paul to the Thessalonians, which was 
written about the year 51 of the Christian era, and his 
second epistle to the same church followed soon after. 
In the spring of the year 52 A. D., he wrote his first 



24 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

and second letters to the Corinthians, and in 58 he wrote 
his epistle to the Gralatians. The following year he 
wrote his celebrated letter to the Romans. During his 
imprisonment he wrote to the Colossians, the Ephesians, 
the Philippians and to Philemon. After his release 
from his first imprisonment he seems to have gone west- 
ward as far as Spain, and then east as far as Asia Minor, 
preaching the gospel; during which time he wrote his 
first letters to Timothy and Titus. Soon afterwards he 
was re-arrested, and again thrown into a Roman dun- 
geon, where, in the Spring of 68 A. D., a short time be- 
fore his death, he wrote the second epistle to Timothy. 

The gospel by Mark must have been written before 
the year 70, and those of Matthew and Luke before the 
year 80. The Acts of the Apostles were written before 
the gospel by St. Luke, and the epistles of John — also 
the Revelation — were written before John's gospel, and 
thus all the books of the Bible were concluded by the 
year 80 A. D. 

And how were they written? The answer to this 
question is just as important as the other already so 
briefly considered. It must be apparent to all that the 
human writers must be acknowledged as factors in 
the production of the Bible. Various were the ways 
in which they were used by the divine Spirit in pre- 
paring His revelation. Oral tradition, compilation 
from historic records were means used as well as revel- 
ation. The use of such means does not in any sense 
impair the inspiration of Scripture. "All scripture is 
given by inspiration," i. e. given as true — though it may 
be from uninspired sources. " Given by inspiration," sure- 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 25 

ly cannot mean that God is the source and author of all 
contained in the Bible. Such an interpretation of 
inspiration would seem to make God responsible for 
the lies Satan told Job, and for a great many- 
other ungodly sayings contained in the book. It is as 
injurious as it is needless to confound inspiration and 
revelation. Inspiration may only suggest, recall, and 
guide in securing and imparting knowledge already pos- 
sessed. But it must mean that the writer was supernat- 
urally assisted in making the record accurate. Reve- 
lation, however, is the divine Spirit uncovering the un- 
known to the writer so that it is seen. The traditions 
of men, the records of history, and revelations from God 
— all given by inspiration — were the ways in which the 
world received our Bible. 

The compilers of these records, or scribes — as they 
were called — kept and multiplied them with the great- 
est care and toil. Writing upon stones or skins, or 
parchments and by the pen are the two forms of chirog- 
raphy known to have been in use, for some centuries 
before the earliest books of the Bible were written. The 
ten commandments were written on stone, and with the 
other sacred writings were copied upon fine skins of 
leather sewed together in strips, or upon a substance re- 
sembling modern paper manufactured from the reeds 
which grew on the banks of the river Nile. These strips 
of vellum or papyrus were about four inches in breadth, 
and only a few inches in length; they were joined to- 
gether laterally, and made as long as the writing might 
require. Thus the roll of which we read so much was 
formed. The text upon the roll was usually written in 



26 WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN ? 

columns corresponding to the original pieces of the vel- 
lum. Each piece was read in its order, and rolled, when 
read, upon a stick held in the left hand, while the new 
columns would appear in the right. This is the form of 
the sacred books as possessed by the Jews and early- 
Christians, from which were read the law and the proph- 
ets, the gospels, and all the New Testament writings. 
The original characters in which the Old Testament was 
written were the old Hebrew excepting the books of Dan- 
iel, Ezekiel, Esther, and Ezra which were partly written 
in Chaldaic and Aramaic. The writing was a continuous 
formation of letters without vowels, or periods, to indi- 
cate either the sounds of the words, or the sense of the 
passage. Though while the Hebrew was a living lan- 
guage this occasioned little inconvenience, in view of 
these linguistic peculiarities it is a wonder the verbal 
errors of copyists which assuredly exist in the present 
manuscripts are so few and unimportant. And under 
divine guidance much is due to the efforts of Ezra, Ne- 
hemiah and Massorah for the vocalization, pronuncia- 
tion, division and purity of the text, and the develop- 
ment of the language as we now possess it in the Old 
Testament Scriptures. 

The New Testament text was given in similar forms 
but by the time it was written the facilities for writing 
and copying had greatly improved upon those in the 
days of the Old Testament writers. The New Testa- 
ment was written originally in Greek without punctua- 
tion, or arrangement of the chapters or verses, and the 
earliest manuscripts reveal two kinds of writing called 
"uncial" and " cursive." The uncial is of a large round 



WHEN WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 27 

letter resembling modern capitals, while the cursive is 
smaller and resembles our present day writing called 
round hand. 80 numerous were the copyists that before 
the close of the first century there was at least one copy 
of the gospels, and of the epistles, with letters from 
other early Christian fathers, possessed by all the Chris- 
tian churches. From these original sources, and by 
these ways, and in those times, did mankind receive this 
priceless heritage from heaven. By the diligent hands 
of the transcriber, through the untiring devotion of 
those faithful servants of God, and the unerring guid- 
ance of the Omniscient Spirit we, at the cost of un- 
told treasures and blood, have thus received this un- 
speakable gift of the eternal God, to guide our sin=be- 
nighted minds by its illumining precepts and save our 
immortal souls. 



CHAPTER II. 

BY WHOM WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN? 

" No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from 
God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." Peter. 

Adam Clarke once said, "A good man could not have 
written the Bible if he would, and a bad man would not 
have written it if he could." We believe the logical an- 
swer to the above question is contained in this epigram- 
matic statement. For good men to have written it, and 
accredited their writings to others than those who wrote 
would have been to practice deception which in such a 
momentous matter good men would find impossible to 
do. For, though we allow that a low moral tone, and 
confused conceptions of a lofty motive governed those 
writers, they were at least sufficiently human to under- 
stand that one of the certainties of life is the discovery 
of hypocrisy. -The sixty-six books of the Bible were 
written by about thirty different writers whose identity 
may be known by the ordinary rules which govern the 
discovery of authors with whom the age is not person- 
ally acquainted. I have a young friend who, as an en- 
gineer, sails the southern seas. When he writes to me 
I know from where and from whom the letter comes by 
the government stamp upon it, by the style of his writ- 
ing, and the contents of his letters. And these writers 
of Scripture have been identified and made known to 

28 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 29 

reasonable religious people with a satisfactory measure 
of exactness by similar marks. These marks or evi- 
dence have often been ridiculed as inadequate to show 
the authorship of the Bible. But I have no desire to 
introduce here any that would not be accepted as valid in 
the highest courts of the land. Jurists tell us that 
" Documents found in a place in which, and under the 
care of persons with whom, such papers might naturally 
and reasonably be expected to be found, or in the pos- 
session of persons having an interest in them, are pre- 
cisely the custody which gives authenticity to docu- 
ments found within it." This statement is founded on 
the undying principles of equity and justice, and is the 
basal principle of law practice throughout the civilized 
world. This evidence is as admissible in proving the 
authorship as the truthfulness of the Scriptures. It 
will be possible for us to look into only a few of the 
most important books of the Bible and endeavor to dis- 
cover who wrote them by adducing legitimate evidence 
on their behalf. Those less disputed ones which may 
not be considered, we shall take for granted according 
to the rule by which the greater proves the less. 

The authors were all human, and each in writing re- 
tained his individuality, though all their writings were 
given under inspiration of God. Let us begin with the 
oldest book, viz., the book of Job. That Job wrote this 
book seems apparent from the fact that only such a man 
could write it. Keeping in mind the universally acknowl- 
edged fact that each inspired writer exercised fully his 
faculties in declaring his message, the reader should be 
easily convinced that only a Job who lived in the age of 



30 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

Job, who knew what Job knew, and suffered as he suf- 
fered, could have written that matchless poem of hu- 
man experience and divine providence. There are 
many good reasons why neither Moses nor Solomon 
could have written it. They lived in another place and 
period of the world's history than the author. The 
writer of it lived in the times of the eastern patriarchs, 
and in the days of the so called giants, and of the phil- 
osophic discussions of the sons of the east. The mode 
of life and thought revealed in the book is distinctively 
Arabian, just as the style of speech and thought in the 
" Canterbury Tales " is Chaucerian. In the book there 
are mentioned the worship of the sun, moon, and stars; 
but there is no word about the worship of idols. Riches 
are set forth or estimated in value by cattle. The kind 
of coin prevalent in that age is distinctly named. No 
sacrifices such as are named in the Pentateuch are 
spoken about. No reference whatever is made to the 
Mosaic law, and none to the exodus. It contains not a 
solitary allusion to a Jew, or a Hebrew; to the Holy 
Land, to Jerusalem, to the tabernacle, or to the temple; 
all of which would indicate that the book was written 
previous to the age of Moses. It is also of the highest 
probability that some of those named in the book lived 
in the days immediately following Abraham. In Gene- 
sis 36: 4-10, mention is made of Eliphaz as a son of 
Esau, and it is well known that Esau and his descend- 
ants lived in Mount Seir in the east. Another com- 
forter is named Bildad, the Shuhite, which appellation 
doubtless connects him with Shuah, one of the sons of 
Abraham by Keturah, and all these sons occupied the 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 31 

country towards the Persian gulf. Elihu, the Buzite, 
was also another comforter, and was probably a de- 
scendant of Nahor, who was the founder of the Buz- 
ites, and a relative of Abraham. The land owned by 
Buz is spoken of as " the land of Uz," which was the 
land where Job dwelt. In Smith's Bible Dictionary w T e 
are informed that Job had previously borne the name 
of Jobab, but like the names of Abraham, Jacob, and 
Joshua, it was changed, and that he was identical with 
Jobab, the prince of Edom. Therefore the preponder- 
ance of evidence shows that the book belongs to the 
times of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Elihu, who were descend- 
ants of Abraham, and contemporaries of Job; and that 
Job was its author. 

The next to be noticed is the authorship of the first 
five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch. Gener- 
ally speaking, the authorship of these books is ascribed 
to Moses, excepting, of course, the account of his own 
death, and a few minor matters attributed to Joshua. 
The popular reason given is " they were called the 
books of Moses"; but that is not by any means the 
principal or only one. There was no one either be- 
fore or after the exile of Israel so well qualified as 
Moses to write them. It has never been disputed that 
" he was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians," 
and some of these books give evidence of such learning, 
which is now known to have been considerable. As the 
deliverer of the Israelitish people he was acquainted 
with their needs, their rights, and their history. He 
lived in a great crisis of the history of his own people; 
he had been the prime mover in many of their noble 



32 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

deeds, and he, as their leader, would at least be ac- 
quainted with whatever historic documents existed. 
Thus he was exceptionally well qualified by his posi- 
tion to describe accurately the Arab life of his own an- 
cestors, the exact condition of Egyptian civilization, the 
deliverance of Israel from bondage, the subsequent 
trials and teachings in their wilderness life. He was 
their hero; he had led them to freedom, and was point- 
ing them to Canaan to win their promised rights by the 
sword. He had to justify their mission as a people 
fulfilling an high destiny, and through whom he pro- 
claimed to the proud nations, " all the families of the 
earth should be blessed." 

Never did man hear a louder call; seldom has a man 
had such qualifications to write the history of the origin 
and development of a nation. It is passing strange to 
read denials of the Mosaic authorship of these books 
made for the alleged purpose of removing the miracu- 
lous from the Bible, and in consequence making it more 
acceptable to unbelievers, and perplexed hosts. For, it 
is beyond question, that by placing the authorship of 
the first five books of the Bible after the exile, the mi- 
raculous element in their production is greatly in- 
creased. For instance, if Moses made a record of many of 
these events recorded in the Pentateuch as they occurred, 
and the accuracy of the record was assured by divine 
superintendence, there is less of the miraculous required 
for him to make the record, than there would be to 
reveal the facts to another writer one thousand years 
after the events, the time when the objectors to the Mo- 
saic authorship claim they were written. History shows 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 33 

the Israelites one thousand years after Moses were 
entirely separated from Egypt. Their associations were 
then Babylonian, Syrian, and Persian. It would, there- 
fore, be as reasonable to expect Tolstoi, the Russian, to 
write without documents or tradition or divine revela- 
tion an accurate history of Tammany Hall, or of the 
American constitution, as for a writer in that age to 
write these books. It is readily granted they contain 
some Babylonian and Assyrian elements, the causes of 
which shall be stated in future chapters. But on the 
whole — as already mentioned — the books of Moses are 
Egyptian books colored with the desert life of the 
Israelites, revealing the needs and claims; and the rela- 
tion of these people to one another, and to God; and 
their great destiny among the nations of the earth, and 
only a Moses could have written them. Indeed, the the- 
ories of our hypercritical friends seem infinitely more 
bottomless than those of the most orthodox. The inter- 
nal evidence of the books when further examined sup- 
ports even more strongly the Mosaic authorship. Exodus 
17:14 says, ''The Lord said unto Moses write this for a 
memorial in the book and rehearse it in the ears of 
Joshua." In the same book, 34 ch., 27-28 vv., we read, 
"And the Lord said unto Moses write thou these words 
for after the tenor of these words have I made a cove- 
nant with thee, and with Israel." In Numbers 33:2 He 
said, " And Moses wrote their goings out, according to 
their journeyings." In Deui 31:9, 22-24 we read, 
"Moses wrote this law: Moses, therefore, wrote this 
song the same day." And in addition to this evidence 
we have nearly every writer in the Bible testifying that 



31 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

Moses wrote these books, and the words of the spotless 
Jesus verify them all. Surely the testimony of Christ 
ought to be sufficient proof of their Mosaic authorship 
to any but a thorough going rationalist, for His spotless 
character is the seal of His truth. 

We come now to the consideration of the authors of 
the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel. That 
Joshua wrote the book bearing his name has seldom 
been seriously disputed. It has generally been classi- 
fied with the five books ascribed to Moses as a part of 
the early history of the Israelites in Canaan, and its 
authorship stands or falls with them. For, if the Pen- 
tateuch was not written till after the exile, it is impossi- 
ble to believe that the book of Joshua with its subse- 
quent history could have been written before it. How- 
ever, it may be premature to enter upon an elaborate 
defense of Joshua until Moses has been disposed of. 
And judging from the recent utterances of one of the 
opponents to the Mosaic authorship, Joshua is likely to 
prove as formidable a support to that authorship as he 
was to the Mosaic wars. 

The book of Judges takes up the history of the Israel- 
itish people from the death of Joshua to the death of 
Samuel and was written by the latter, of which the con- 
tents of the first part of the book are almost indisput- 
able proof. That it contains the statement, " there was 
then no king in the land " is no proof that the writer 
lived at a later date than Samuel. It may only serve to 
show the fact that no king had as yet been given to Is- 
rael. The book of Ruth which has been fitly termed 
a " beautiful epic poem of domestic life," was formerly 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 35 

an appendix of the book of Judges, and was composed 
by the same author. This is borne witness to by Jose- 
phus, Origen, and Jerome; and the weight of evidence 
to=day is overwhelmingly in favor of Samuel. The 
book or books of Samuel are called so, more because the 
writer treats of him and his times, than because he 
wrote them. Their authorship is generally believed to 
be uncertain, and there is abundant evidence in the 
book itself to show that it was not written until after 
the kingdom was divided in Rehoboam's time. The 
most ancient tradition of its authorship is, that the first 
twenty-four chapters were written by Samuel, and, at a 
later date, perhaps some prophet — Nathan or Gad — edit- 
ed the remaining portion. Many modern scholars 
adopt this view, and the Scriptures themselves which, 
as evidence, ought to be of still greater value, support it 
in 1st Chron. 29: 29 by saying, "Now the acts of David 
the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the 
book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the 
prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." But of this 
book with some others in the Bible we can only say in 
the words of the saintly Fuller, " He that has a piece of 
gold of right weight, and stamped with the king's im- 
age, cares not to know who minted it." The Kings, 
Lamentations, and Jeremiah were written by that 
prophet. The books of Kings which, like those of Sam- 
uel were originally one, and for a time were united with 
the books of the Chronicles, are records of the kings of 
Judah and Israel compiled and completed by the 
prophet down to the captivity, or to the last of the Jew- 
ish royal rulers. The Lamentations and Jeremiah con- 



36 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

tain brief accounts of the sufferings of the nation, the 
warnings of Grod to it in its decay, and His earnest invi- 
tations to repentance. Josephus and the writers of the 
Talmud support the Jeremianic authorship of the Lam- 
entations, and Drs. Hornblower and Keil and the mod- 
ern critical school favor it. Ewald says of it, " every 
competent judge will ascribe them to only one poet," 
and Thenius is certain that chapters II and IV " are un- 
deniably from Jeremiah." The objections urged against 
it are, the absence in some portions of the precarious 
evidence of Jeremiah's words and style, and his so-called 
unnatural pastime of busying himself with the poetic 
art in such calamitous days. But the criticisms are not 
well founded; for the book shows his own style to be 
very marked, in most chapters; while, if he had a chance 
to reply to the charge of " unnatural indifference " he 
might say with the late President Lincoln when charged 
with levity during the Civil War that, " but for such a 
source of relief, grief would have killed me." Concern- 
ing the book of Jeremiah we only quote the beautiful 
and accurate words of Wordsworth that " his prophecies 
are his autobiography," which fact is an indisputable 
proof of his authorship. 

The Proverbs were written by Solomon with the ex- 
ception of the two last chapters of the book, as also the 
book of Ecclesiastes, or " the Preacher " written after 
his weary soul had struggled through selfishness, sensu- 
ality, and perplexity into a calm, pure peace; and prob- 
ably also the Song of Solomon. This last as shown in the 
book of Kings 1 is closely related to the Proverbs, which 

11 Kings 1:32; Cant. 1:1. 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 37 

are universally conceded to the wise king, and links in- 
separably the authorship of both. The book of Psalms 
which contains the sweetest of the Hebrew nation's 
poetry, the spiritual songs of the Jewish Church, and a 
reflection of the religious and irreligious experience of 
the writers, has several authors. Of these psalms, after 
the most searching criticism, alike by friend and foe, 
the consensus of opinion shows seventy^nine written by 
David, one by Moses, one by Solomon, twelve by Asaph, 
one by Heman, and one by Ethan. The remaining 
fifty=one are anonymous; eleven of them were written for 
the sons of Korah; fifteen are called pilgrim songs; 
eleven, hallelujah psalms beginning with the words 
" praise the Lord," and the 136th Psalm in which the 
mercy of the Lord is sung twenty-six times. 

The authors of the minor, or lesser books of the 
prophets we must pass by with the statement that ex- 
cepting Daniel they are almost universally believed to 
have been the writers of the several books whose names 
they bear. Their messages and style are variously 
adapted to the nature of their various missions, are 
fully in harmony with their personality, with the times 
in which they lived, and of which they wrote. 

It is, however, very different with the books of Isaiah 
and Daniel, as the authorship of these has been most 
fiercely disputed. The story of Jonah has been laughed 
at by scoffing unbelievers, but Christian (?) rationalists 
have discredited the authorship of Isaiah and Daniel 
largely because they disbelieve their prophecies. For 
example, these objectors admit Isaiah wrote twenty-six 
chapters of the book bearing his name, but when they 



38 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

come to the prophecy concerning Cyrus and his king- 
dom, they, rather than believe in the prophecy say, "He 
is not the author of the remaining chapters." "A 
second Isaiah" say they, "some unknown writer in the 
time of Cyrus wrote these." If this were true, is it not 
passing strange that a writer equal to Isaiah their pro- 
phet, almost the peer of David in sacred song, a leader 
of the Jewish people with the clearest Messianic message 
on his lips, should have been " unknown " to Israel? 
Think of a Gladstone being forgotten one hundred and 
fifty years hence by the British; of the name of Lincoln 
never being found in an archive of the United States, 
and then believe this counsellor of Jewish kings, unsur- 
passed of Jewish statesmen; this messenger of the 
Messianic kingdom upon which " Israel's hope " rested, 
and who wrote this latter part of the book of Isaiah was, 
"unknown" ! The entire book was attributed to Isaiah 
the son of Amoz, by the great Synagogue composed of 
such illustrious men as Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, and 
Haggai. For centuries after the captivity, the book 
was used every Sabbath=day as "the book of Isaiah" 
and thirteen out of its sixteen prophetic readings were 
selected from the part of the book objected to by those 
critics. The author of the first part of it wrote in the 
reign of Hezekiah, and the author of the second part 
also speaks of the wife of Hezekiah as a type of the 
church of God restored. John the Baptist was the 
strongest link in the chain which bound the Jewish 
church to the New Testament age prior to the birth of 
Christ. In telling us through whom he received his 
commission as herald of the matchless Monarch Christ, 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 39 

he quotes from the 40th chapter of Isaiah, " I am the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the 
way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet." Our Lord 
when on earth received into His holy hands that same 
roll from which John the Baptist unwittingly testified 
to the single Isaiah authorship, and He also read the 
words as those of Isaiah. As the writers of the most 
recent life of Lincoln have shown that by his style, 
manner, and matter those letters are Lincoln's, and not 
Seward's or Blaine's, so Prof. Delitzsch, one of the fore- 
most of Hebrew scholars and students of eastern litera- 
ture shows that the sententious style and sharp move- 
ment of thought, everywhere discernible in the begin- 
ning of Isaiah's book, are but the prelude to the majes- 
tic harmonies in the latter half of it. So that if he 
wrote the first part — which has not been disputed — it is 
evident he wrote the whole. 

Our Lord and some of His apostles have repeatedly 
borne witness to Daniel as the author of the book which 
bears his name, and all Jewish tradition ascribes it to 
that heroic prophet. The strongest objection to this 
view is founded upon the fact that the book is written 
in both the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages. From 
this, the objectors conclude that there were at least two 
authors of it. However, if it be remembered that 
Daniel was a Hebrew who knew both languages; that it 
would be natural for him to relate the early history of 
himself and his companions in Hebrew, and write the 
visions pertaining to the Babylonian empire in the pre- 
vailing language of that nation, the objection fades like 
a star before the sunlight. Moreover, the dual character 



4:0 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

of the language used, proves it must have been written 
by a Jew in Babylonian captivity. The exact acquaint- 
ance of the historic relations, the court manners and 
national customs of Daniel's time revealed in the book 
testify that the author was also a person in high posi- 
tion and distinction in Babylon. It has been also ob- 
jected that there are historic inaccuracies in the book 
— though, so far, the statement is supported by more 
assumption than fact — which could not have been made 
by a resident author. But the cuneiform tablet recent- 
ly discovered by Mr. Pinches in Nineveh shows Bel- 
shazzar to have been both a prince and a man of action 
throughout the nation, and that Daniel was at least so 
far correct in his history. 

With the remark that Ezra and Nehemiah wrote the 
histories ascribed to them after the return of the Israel- 
ites from the captivity in Babylon, we shall briefly no- 
tice the writers of the New Testam ent Scriptures. 

Only the authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews, 
and the second one ascribed to Peter and the gospel by 
John, have been earnestly disputed. It is uncertain who 
wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, but the weight of evi- 
dence supports the general belief that Peter wrote 
the second epistle ascribed to him. The accepted 
authorship of John's gospel has been fiercely assailed; 
but we must either accept of John as its author, 
or that the gospel is an intentional fraud. The author 
repeatedly declares himself to have been an eye-wit- 
ness of the life of Christ (John 1: 14; 19: 35; 1 
John 1:1). It was generally received as John's gospel 
fifty years after his death. Marcion, Valentinus, Bas- 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? ' 41 

Hides and other critical writers of the first and second 
centuries acknowledge its genuineness. Such evidence 
cannot be explained if John was not its author. 

Of course, the trustworthiness or authenticity of 
others has been questioned, but not their authorship. 
Paul wrote thirteen of the twenty^seven New Testament 
books. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles and the 
gospel bearing his name, and the others were either 
written or dictated by those to whom they are ascribed. 
It has often been asserted there were no Christian writ- 
ings in the first century, and that it was one of dark 
superstition of which there is nothing certain or reli- 
able. But the histories of the first four centuries of the 
Christian era reveal the opposite. Indeed, the pagan 
and patristic literature, the writings alike of apologists 
and unbelievers of that time illustrate most fully the 
amazing audacity and groundless assumptions of mod- 
ern infidelity on this important question. These New 
Testament authors were our Lord's biographers and first 
writers to His infant church. They were as well known 
to the churches as Moody is in the Christian world to* 
day, and a copy of their writings was in nearly every 
Christian congregation. The indisputable evidence of 
this is in the following historic and well known facts. 
Poly carp was a pupil of St. John; and Justin Martyr 
a disciple of Polycarp, was born ten years before John 
died. Clement and Barnabas of the beginning of 
the second century mention in their letters the epistles 
of Paul. Tertullian also of the second century occupies 
in his works thirty folio pages by quotations from the 
autograph writings of these apostles and evangelists. 



42 WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? 

In the third century Origen, Victorinus, and Dionysius 
wrote expositions of these writings, and quoted long 
extracts from the apostles. In the fourth century 
there existed eleven distinct catalogues of these books 
with the names of the writers appended. In several 
church councils of which the last was held at 
Carthage in 397, there was set forth a list containing 
all the New Testament books with their authors. These 
are only a few of many writings which show the first 
four Christian centuries teemed with testimony most 
credible to the writers of the New Testament. 

Moreover, as another has remarked, "these books 
could not have been written in the same language in 
which we have them if they had not been written be- 
fore the end of the first century," and therefore by our 
authors. When Jerusalem was destroyed in the 70th 
year of our Lord, the Jews were rooted out of the 
land almost stock and branch. Foreigners came to it 
from all directions, and the former language of the 
people became a dead language. It became a conglom- 
erate, and in the first quarter of the 2nd century there 
were few if any who could either speak or write the 
language of the apostles. Indeed any attempt to do so 
would have failed as entirely as that of Josh Billings to 
reform the English language by phonetic spelling. In- 
fidel writers of the first four centuries also wrote favor- 
ing our authors. The Emperor Julian, known as " the 
apostate " wrote in 361 a work against Christianity; but 
he nowhere expressed a doubt as to either the books of 
Christians or their authors. It is almost certain that 
had occasion admitted of it, he would have challenged 



WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? \:\ 

the genuineness of the books. Porphyry, universally con- 
ceded to have been the most formidable opponent to 
Christianity wrote in 270, and spoke of Matthew as 
" their evangelist." Celsus, esteemed by modern infi- 
dels as a wonderful philosopher, wrote against Christian- 
ity in 176 a book entitled "A True Discourse" of 
which Origen has preserved fragments. But so unlike 
was he to his modern infidel brethern that he admitted 
the existence of the Christian or New Testament writ- 
ings, and their genuineness. Is it unfair to ask, " Was 
it because he knew more than his present day success- 
ors in unbelief, or was he only more honest than they?" 
Whatever the reason it must be apparent to every un- 
prejudiced mind that earnest seekers after truth, who 
ignore such testimony accessible to the average scholar, 
are inexcusably guilty of trifling with indisputable evi- 
dence which would be convincing in any civil court. 
Such testimony has been provided in abundance alike 
by the friends and foes of the lowly Nazarene,— our 
Lord in glory, — and it proves that these " Holy men of 
old," to whom their writings were assigned, " spake and 
wrote them from God, being moved by the Holy 
Ghost." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS AS HISTORY. 

" They all shall wax old as doth a garment" David. 

The question is often asked, " Have we proof that the 
Bible, or the several books of it, were written in the 
ages, or within a reasonable time of the historic 
epochs of which they profess to speak? " And the an- 
swers generally given by our average church members 
are seldom very assuring; and those of scepticism may 
be summed up in the ever emphatic, though presump- 
tuous "No." Upon this book, part of which Moses 
wrote, Isaiah dictated, David sang, and John penned, 
believing people have in faith wisely pillowed their 
heads, soothed their hearts, and anchored their immor- 
tal hopes. And it is surely of the utmost importance 
that we have evidence of an independent character, that 
its historic portions contain real history. In treating 
of these books or portions of them, I shall in this chap- 
ter discuss them merely as matters of history, and apart 
from any question of their inspiration. Let us receive 
them according to the strength of the evidence pro- 
duced, as we would any other history. The evidence 
called forth shall be the living neighbors and enemies 
of those Hebrews whose history the books relate. 
These are impartial witnesses, for they had fought with 
many of them for their native land, their hearthstones, 

44 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 45 

and life=blood. All courts of enlightened lands agree 
that favorable testimony from an enemy is the strongest 
possible, even when given upon cross=examination. 
But when it is written spontaneously, without any in- 
tention of rendering assistance, as a record of facts 
which transpired, such testimony is unassailable and 
invaluable. 

One great difficulty in the way of many people who 
reject the miraculous, and who do not believe the Bi- 
ble as historically true, is, they expect miraculous evi- 
dence to support it. They say, " Show us the original 
manuscripts with the autographs of the inspired 
writers," whereas, nothing less than a miracle could 
preserve these throughout such long ages. The de- 
mand is not only extravagant but irrational, and serves 
to illustrate how differently the Bible is treated from 
any other book. Whoever heard of a request for the 
original manuscripts of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, of 
Shakespeare's works, or of Chaucer's Tales, in order to 
believe them true? Keasonable people are satisfied 
with rational evidence to prove the authenticity and 
genuineness of these books which were also printed 
from manuscripts. We know these books to be true by 
the succeeding generations having received them from 
the time they were published; by the writings them- 
selves revealing the characteristics of the writers, and 
of the age in which they wrote; and by histories writ- 
ten during the same periods witnessing to their historic 
truth. Such evidence has always been considered suffi- 
cent to establish the historic character of secular writ- 
ings, and why is it considered insufficient on behalf 



46 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

of the historic books of the Bible? In such an instance 
so-called reasoning (?) unbelief becomes as tyrannical 
and bigoted as credulous superstition. 

The evidence to which I shall confine myself here is 
that drawn from writings either earlier than, or con- 
temporaneous with, the Old Testament manuscripts. 
Giants of faith have said, " God has never left His 
people without a witness," and I think the truthful 
comment has been made, " nor without the proper one 
for each trial." Never has this truth been more fully 
demonstrated than during the past ten years. The Bi- 
ble was assailed from every side. Even its friends had 
begun to dissect it, and deny or approve its worth as a 
sampler would prove cheese — according to his taste. 
Evidence adduced, and ordinarily accepted as sufficient, 
was rejected as inadequate on behalf of the Bible; timid 
people feared for it, and good men became anxious as 
its opponents grew bold. The great objection which 
seemed to demolish all argument and evidence was 
summed up in the sentence, " There were no writings in 
those days of antiquity; the Bible must have been handed 
down by oral tradition, and very little of it can be his- 
torical." That was their Gibraltar from which they 
threw the death^threatening missiles. But it proved 
only a sweeping conclusion from a narrow and false 
premise. For it has been proven beyond any question 
that there was writing in those days of antiquity. Sud- 
denly as a star falls out of the sky at midnight, there was 
discovered a stone by an Arab sheikh who, we are told 
by Prof. Sayce, gave information concerning it to a Mr. 
Klein, who was then traveling to Moab. On examining 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 47 

it the sheikh had little knowledge of the value of the 
stone, as it was only " four feet high, and two in 
width." But when it fell into the hands of the archae- 
ologist it was found to contain thirty=four lines of an 
inscription in the letters of the Phoenician alphabet: 
This stone proved the first of many effective weapons 
which have, under God, driven those enemies of His Word 
from their position, by demonstrating there were writ- 
ings before the age of the Old Testament manuscripts. 
When Mr. Klein returned to Jerusalem, he informed 
the Prussian consulate of the discovery, and measures 
were at once taken to secure possession of the stone, as 
large sums of money were demanded for its purchase. 
On being deciphered by archseologists, it proved to be a 
stone erected by Mesha, the king of Moab, in the 9th 
century, B. C, and contained a record of his successful 
revolt against Israel, and written in honor of his god 
Chemosh, to whom his successes are ascribed. This dis- 
covery proved conclusively that the ancient East had 
formerly attained to a greater civilization than even this 
stone revealed, and great diligence was manifested in 
digging out the supposed secrets of the buried cities of 
the past. Excavators digged and discovered until in 
some instances their devotion cost them their lives. 
Scholars learned in oriental languages, and hiero- 
glyphics, studied more deeply the languages of these 
eastern nations with an assiduity never before equalled, 
that they might read accurately the buried literature of 
the dead past. Nor did they go unrewarded. Monu- 
ments were discovered, and also great libraries written 
upon imperishable clay tablets; and these have taught 



48 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

wonderful lessons concerning the history of these an- 
cient lands, and afford indisputable proofs of the his- 
toric character of the Old Testament manuscripts. 

Drs. Schleimann, Petrie, Layard, Botta, Sayce, and 
others, all archaeologists and oriental scholars of the 
highest repute, have spent long years in searching amid 
the buried cities of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, 
and Persia, and in deciphering what has been found. 
Their discoveries have also proven that writing was in 
existence long before the exodus, and that it is no longer 
necessary for believers in the Bible to rely solely upon 
internal evidence to prove its authenticity. As another 
has said, " the verbal hair splitting of the higher critic 
need not be depended upon, any more than the dogmatic 
statement of the lower critic, to prove the historic char- 
acter of the Old Testament manuscripts." We have 
these stones written at least as early as the books of the 
Old Testament claim to have been written, and we may 
call them to witness. Indeed, Prof. Sayce, and others 
equally well qualified to judge, assert that the testi- 
mony of these tablets shows that of all the ancient 
writings to which they incidentally witness, the history 
of the Old Testament Scriptures is the most accurate. 
We are told, tablets have been discovered in Nineveh 
containing epic poems of primitive Chaldea, in the reign 
of Khammuraba 2350 B. C; the poems being like unto 
Tennyson's Alfred, and revealing how ancient the art of 
writing is. In Tel=el=Arma where stood centuries ago 
Thebes, the ancient southern capital of Egypt, of whose 
pyramids Napoleon said to his fainting heroes, " Forty 
centuries look down upon you," tablets were discov- 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 49 

ered by Mr. Naville, containing writings which reveal 
the history of Egyptian religion, and verify the exist- 
ence of the Old Testament Scriptures from the time of 
the pyramid builders down to the age of the conquest 
of Egypt by Persia. Moreover, the writings on these 
tablets, according to the archaeologists, are "in the 
cuneiform characters of Babylon," and, therefore, show 
clearly that at least a century before the exodus the 
Babylonian language prevailed throughout the East. 
They also reveal that a considerable portion of the let- 
ters found in the mound at Tel=el=Arma were sent from 
Palestine and Phoenicia; and that the land of Canaan 
was a center of the correspondence which took place 
between the Egyptian court and the surrounding prov- 
inces. Some were found dated from Lachish, from 
Jerusalem, from Gaza, and from Shechem; and serve to 
show whence came the Babylonian and Chaldaic phrase- 
ology in the five books of Moses, and to prove the prev- 
alence of the art of writing among these ancient people. 
Prof. Sayce has also told the story of how these tablets 
contain writings of the creation of the world, revealing 
a wondrous correspondence between the order of the 
days in the book of Genesis, and that of the cuneiform 
tablets of clay. Each tablet contains an account of one 
day's creation, until the whole story in poetic and phil- 
osophic form is completed. 

In the story reference is made to the institution of 
the Sabbath, the belief that woman was created out of 
man, the garden of Eden, and the name of Methusaleh 
is distinctly mentioned as " the man of God." It is 
true that some archaeologists have pointed out the dif- 



50 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

ferences existing in some particulars between the writ- 
ings on these slabs, and those in Genesis. But the dif- 
ferences are more in the forms of the conceptions of the 
writers, than in the facts related. Indeed, even the 
arch geologists referred to, show the difference is princi- 
pally in the fact that the Babylonian writer deifies the 
forces of nature, while the Hebrew writer sees only the 
creative will of the Supreme God. It seems to us this 
would merely prove that those tablets written 3500 B- 
0., and the contents of the book of Genesis were not 
copied the one from the other; and that the latter are 
not myths, manufactured by a credulous and ignorant 
people of a comparatively recent age. They are the 
conceptions of historic events, recorded by a writer at 
least as old as the Scriptures themselves profess to be. 

It is well known that until very recently the geology 
of the East, where the events recorded in Genesis oc- 
curred, was considered sufficient evidence to prove the 
flood was historical. As a proof of this, even Huxley's 
reputation as a geologist was greatly impaired by his 
opposition to the views on this question of such special- 
ists in geology as Sir William Dawson, Prof. Dana, Sir 
Roderick Murchison and others. That evidence has, 
however, been fortified by the discovery of a version of 
the flood in cuneiform characters, which has now be- 
come a common-place in modern books, written on the 
history of the Old Testament. This writing on the slabs 
shows there was not the remotest necessity for handing 
down the story by tradition, as the writers of the origi- 
nal manuscripts were almost certain eye-witnesses to the 
great deluge. Indeed, these archaeologists inform us 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 51 

that upon this slab, which is as old as Noah himself, 
there are found the very words used in Scripture which 
say, "the Lord smelt a sweet savour," when Noah 
offered his sacrifice. Prof. Sayce further informs us 
that even the tenth chapter of Genesis is not a mere 
historic record of early races as commentators have 
taught, but only a record of the northern and southern 
zones of the then known world. And in like manner, as 
the Bible teaches, these stones declare, their inhabitants 
were called children of Canaan, in the same sense as all 
residents on American soil are called Americans. 

Again, the name of Abraham has been found in early 
Babylonian contracts. And the campaign of Chedor= 
laomer and his allies as recorded in the 14th chapter of 
Genesis has been proved historical by this class of writ- 
ings. These stones make known that he led the con- 
quest in the west with Abraham, and after his enemies 
were subdued they served him as vassals, or provincial 
kings for twelve years. Thus the Scriptural account of 
these historic details concerning the wars of these kings, 
and the geography of these kingdoms may be accepted 
as history with greatest confidence. Even the historic 
character of the much despised Melchisedek, has been 
vindicated by one of these tablets found in the mound 
of Tel-el-Arma. It reads, as does the Scripture in: 
Genesis, that " he was king of Jerusalem, because he 
was the high priest of its God." Also, the historic 
character of Joseph has been established beyond any 
doubt by these tablets, and the book of Genesis is thus 
shown to rank with the monuments of the past, as a 
historic record of events which happened. 



52 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

In like manner as the clay records of Babylon prove 
these ancient Scriptures to be a history, and not a myth 
or mere tradition, so do Egyptian tablets prove the ex- 
odus to have been all the Hebrew Scriptures claim. Dr. 
Brugsch has discovered tablets which show the city of 
Rameses was the name given to Zoan, or Tunis, after its 
reconstruction by Rameses II. The city of Pithom of 
Scripture was discovered only three years ago in the 
mounds of Tel-el-Maskhuta. This is near the famous 
site of the modern Tel=el-Kebir, and inscriptions found 
on the spot prove that it was built by that Pharaoh 
(Rameses II.) for a storehouse of corn or treasure. 
The store=chambers have been laid bare, and are divided 
by partitions from eight to ten inches thick. They were 
constructed of brick baked in the sun, some of which 
were mixed with straw, andothers without it. And as 
Mr. Naville has said, " We may see in these strawless 
brick the work of the oppressed Israelites when the or- 
der came, ' Thus saith the Pharaoh, I will not give you 
straw.'" 

During the reign of the successor of this Pharaoh the 
exodus took place. The recently discovered official re- 
ports of it state, " They passed through Khetam," which 
is called Etham in Scripture — to the lakes of the city of 
Pithom which is along part of the road these Israelites 
travelled on the way out of Egypt," as recorded in Scrip- 
ture. So these Egyptian writings unite with the early 
Babylonian ones, and together they become incontrovert- 
ible historic witnesses of the historic character of these 
ancient manuscripts. 

From Assyrian mounds, and ruins also, illustrations 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 53 

and confirmations of the historic character of the Holy 
Book have been brought forth abundantly. Specially 
corroborative of Scripture truth have been the sculptured 
stone, and clay books of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian 
capital. It is now well known that as the power of Egypt 
declined, that of Assyria increased in the East, and it was 
with Assyria the later history of Israel had to do. The 
records left, which have been recently discovered, con- 
firm many of the historical statements of the Old Tes- 
tament. Ahab of Israel is the first king mentioned in 
these discovered Assyrian texts. In 1st Kings 20: 34 
we learn that, " Ahab and Benhadad made a contract as 
allies against Assyria." The tablets from Nineveh relate 
that " Ahab brought 2,000 chariots and 10,000 men to 
help Benhadad and his allies in a great battle against 
the Assyrians." Further, both the Bible and the mon- 
uments testify that Hazael was Benhadad's successor. 
Tiglath=Pileser is the first Assyrian monarch mentioned 
in Old Testament history, and it has been recently 
learned from the monuments that he was the first who 
led his armies against Israel. In 2d Kings 15: 29 we 
read, " In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath= 
pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abehbeth= 
maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and 
Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried 
them captive to Assyria." Tiglath=Pileser also tells of 
this conquest in an inscription written in his eleventh 
year as ruler, which was 734 B. C. The interpreters of 
the tablets tell us it reads, "After overunning some of the 
Phoenician states, I captured the towns of Gilead, and 
Abehbeth-maachah, . . . and annexed the whole 



54 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

district to Assyria." He then relates his conquest of 
Gaza, and adds, " Peka their king I put to death, and I 
raised Hosea to the sovereignty over them." These in- 
scriptions reveal that Tiglath^Pileser died in December 
727 B. C. and the crown was usurped by Elulseos who 
took the name of Shalmaneser IV. He carried Hosea 
into captivity, and laid siege to Samaria as we are told 
in the Bible. One Sargon seized the throne after Shal- 
maneser's death, and immediately after Samaria was 
entirely conquered. His name is but once mentioned 
in Scriptures, and the wise highest critics of the Bible 
had declared it was a fictitious name in a mythical 
story. However, the cuneiform writings belonging to 
his reign, or as one has called them, "his state papers" 
do not only confirm his identity, and the truth of Scrip- 
ture, but record "He was the greatest of Assyrian mon- 
archs, and that he ruled 17 years." It has often been said 
of late, that " the Hittites " to whom reference is made 
in the books of Kings, "were not known to classical writ- 
ers, and that allusion to them in Scripture destroyed the 
credibility of the historic books of the Bible." But the 
credibility of the Scriptures is not so easily injured as 
that of their critics. The living stones from Egypt and 
Assyria both prove that the Hittites inhabited the dis- 
trict assigned to them in the Bible, and that they were 
once a very powerful people. These tablets witness that 
in the palmy days of Egypt during the reign of the op- 
pressor of Israel, they contended on equal terms with the 
Egyptians themselves and the Egytian king was glad 
ultimately, " to secure a peace by marrying a Hittite 
princess." In our age, there is a wide spread belief 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 55 

that marriage leads to war, as certainly as the needle to 
the pole. But those Hittites wisely interpreted it as a 
seal of peace. 

Tkese archaeologists further tell us those Hittites in 
the age of the exodus had carried arms across Asia 
Minor, as far as the shores of the Egean, and the empire 
they founded there left remains on the sculptured rocks 
of Lydia. They invented a peculiar system of pictorial 
writing to which the early art of Greece was greatly in- 
debted. Even the site of their northern capital named 
Carchemish, was discovered at a place now called Jerab- 
lus on the Euphrates, by Mr. G. Smith the archaeologist. 
Others reveal the Egyptian name of Joseph the Hebrew 
in Egypt; have verified the accuracy of some disputed 
statements contained in the Bible concerning the geo- 
graphy of some parts of Palestine; and show how even 
some of the early patriarchs and kings David, and 
Solomon were associated with those Hittites of Scrip- 
ture. 

In the past the Bible has been too often approached 
as if it were a fairy tale, but these impartial writers 
with the stylus on those stones have demonstrated that 
it contains historic facts. They reveal that the Jews 
for centuries before their exile to Babylon were a 
literary people, and -well acquainted with the art 
of writing; that theft* historical books are neither false 
nor mythical; that there is nothing in historic litera- 
ture more probable than they were written at the early 
period claimed. And both the believing and doubting 
world owe a debt of gratitude to these pioneer archae- 
ologists who, under an overruling Providence, have 



56 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— HISTORY 

unearthed and interpreted these imperishable writings 
which so indisputably assist in proving the age, the 
credibility, and the authenticity of much of the his- 
tory contained in the Old Testament. Indeed, it seems 
more like a dream than a reality, that these human 
voices in stone, and Scripture should so harmonize in 
declaring to mankind messages from the past, of won- 
der, of mercy, and of miracles. Surely they cannot but 
woo sinful man from himself to lean hard by faith upon 
the " Imperishable Rock " — the Word of the eternal 
God. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS AS PROPHECY. 

" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." Paul. 

Prophecy is God's eye scanning the history of the 
future. When we approach the discussion of it we 
enter the field of the miraculous and the divine. There- 
fore the truthfulness of prophecy can be attested only 
by its fulfillment. Whether the prophecies contained 
in the Bible are authentic, is, however, another ques- 
tion which may be considered without reference to their 
fulfillment. Though, unless both questions are dealt 
with, there can be little satisfaction derived from the 
consideration of either. Prophecy sometimes means a 
declaration or preaching, without any special reference 
to the futurity usually implied in the word itself. 
When St. Paul exhorted the Philippians to " despise 
not prophesy ings," he meant, despise not preachings. 
The specific meaning of the word prophecy is a fore- 
telling of future events miraculously revealed. The 
prophecy must not be merely a happy coincidence, the 
foretelling of which may be the result of an extensive 
knowledge of information not accessible to all; or of a 
brilliant genius; or whose fulfillment is the result of 
concurrent circumstances. Believers in the prophecies 
of the Bible as a part of divine revelation should be as 
willing that self-evident rules govern our prophecies as 

57 



58 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS—PROPHECY 

our mathematics. Otherwise, the doubtful probabilities 
uttered by Delphic oracles might be classed as prophe- 
cies. The prediction should be definitely made known 
before the event. The event foretold should be invisi- 
ble to human view, and incapable o f a double meaning. 
True prophecy cannot descend to the uncertain puerili- 
ties of a juggler's riddle which may be capable of dif- 
ferent applications and a variety of meanings. Many 
portions of the prophetic books are history, and were 
predicted by the prophets as incidents in the nation's 
future. It is of great moment that their historic char- 
acter should be fully understood by the average Chris- 
tian of this age. As we must limit this discussion to 
very meagre proportions, we shall make only a few se- 
lections from the greater prophets. In the days of 
Isaiah there were many shrewd politicians who saw that 
the policy of King Ahaz would ultimately prove disas- 
trous to the independence of the Israeli tish nation. 
But Isaiah alone described in his prophecy contained 
in the 10th chapter of his book, the manner in which, 
and by whom, the Jewish nation should be over- 
thrown. Many Bible critics have, however, poked 
fun in a rather undignified manner at this pro- 
phetic utterance, and scouted the idea of the barest 
possibility of its being historic. But within the 
past few years the historic accuracy of this proph- 
ecy has been thoroughly vindicated by the As- 
syrian monuments. 1 According to archaeologists these 
tell the history of the whole of the struggles between 
Assyria and Judah and Egypt. They state that ten 
1 " Kecords of the Past." New Series, 1. 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 59 

years before the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib, 
there was a previous one by his father, Sargon. A 
Chaldean chief named Merodach-Baladan had made 
himself king of Babylon on the death of Shalmaneser, 
and succeeded for some years in maintaining himself 
against the Assyrian king. Sargon, we are told, became 
more powerful, and the usurper made overtures to form 
a vast league against him. These monuments reveal 
that he sent messengers to Elam, Egypt, and Judah and 
other small states in the West, and Hezekiah's illness 
formed an excuse for their visit to him. We are told 
the writings upon the monuments reveal that the league 
was formed. But before its members had time to act 
in concert, Sargon learned of it, and at. once marched 
his army upon Palestine. The wide spreading land of 
Judah was soon overrun by Sargon's army, and its capi- 
tal taken, as recorded and prophesied in the 10th and 
22nd chapters of Isaiah, by that prophet. 1 These same 
monuments also make known Sargon was murdered 
by his own soldiers, and succeeded on the throne by 
his son Sennacherib, who was crowned on the 12th 
of July, 705 B. C. 

Hezekiah king of Judah, trusting to the king of 
Egypt, threw off his allegiance to Assyria, and was fol- 
lowed by other Phoenician states. However, four years 
afterwards Sennacherib felt strong enough to punish 
them, and then came the terrible campaign which ended 
so disastrously for the vainglorious Assyrian, and which 
Isaiah relates. And the details of both narratives, the 
one in Isaiah, and the other by the cuneiform writers, 

1 Sayce's " The Higher Criticism," etc. Ch. 9. 



60 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 

as translated by the archaeologists, corroborate each 
other, and reveal that Jerusalem was not captured at 
that time, and that Sennacherib never again ventured 
to invade Palestine. Indeed, we are told that so iden- 
tical are the writings of Isaiah and those of the monu- 
ments on this part of history, that the sum of money 
named by Isaiah as given by Hezekiah, is the same in 
value as that set forth on the stone by Sennacherib. 
An inscription on a statue of Tirhakah, an Egyptian 
prince, now in the Bulak museum, reveals that soon 
afterwards Judah became a vassal to Assyria, and then 
the historic truth, and also the fulfillment of the proph- 
ecy of Jeremiah concerning Egypt's overthrow by that 
power were established. A stone containing part of 
the annals of Nebuchadnezzar, giving an account of his 
conquest of Egypt, relates that Esarhaddon, the suc- 
cessor of Sennacherib, rebuilt Babylon which his father 
had destroyed, and took prisoner into Babylon Manasseh 
the king of Judah, and that in the 37th year of his age 
Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, and defeated the Egyp- 
tians. 

Readers of general history are aware that as the As- 
syrian empire fell, the Babylonian one arose. Jere- 
miah had all through the iniquitous days of Judah 
prophesied that Jerusalem would fall by the hand of a 
Babylonian, and not of an Assyrian conqueror. Ap- 
pearances were so much against him that the worldly 
wise men of his age laughed at his simplicity, and the 
lack of his political foresight, as many still laugh at 
the teachings of Scripture. But he was divinely per- 
sistent in his course, and provided more food for the 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 61 

scorner in his folly, when he foretold Zedekiah — the last 
of Jewish kings — that he should behold the king of 
Babylon face to face. Again Ezekiel's prediction that 
Zedekiah should not see Babylon, though he should die 
there, appeared to contradict that of Jeremiah, and the 
sceptical critics became gleeful over " these fables called 
prophecy." But these stones referred to, contain abun- 
dance of evidence, of an indisputable character, that Zed- 
ekiah was delivered over to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, 
in North Palestine. There his sons were put to death 
in his presence, his own eyes put out, and he taken in 
chains a captive to pine and die in Babylon. Thus the 
historic accuracy, as also the fulfillment of the prophecy 
of Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are proved beyond any per- 
ad venture. 

And the prophecy of the overthrow of Babylon as 
related by Isaiah, has been literally recorded on these 
cuneiform writings, and signed by Cyrus the conqueror. 
Archaeologists have discovered two long inscriptions of 
his in the ruins of Babylon, one of which gives in chron- 
ological order, the events which marked the reign of 
the father of Belshazzar, the last Babylonian king, as 
well as the history of the final conquest of that empire. 
The other is a proclamation put forth by Gyrus not long 
after the defeat and death of Nabonidus. It was 
thought that Herodotus had revealed the manner in 
which Cyrus had conquered Babylon. But these in- 
scriptions show there was no siege of Babylon. The 
capital opened its gates to the general of Cyrus, and his 
soldiers entered the city " without fighting." Three 
months later Cyrus himself arrived, and the conquest 



02 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 

was completed as silently and effectively as the drying 
up of brooks and springs by an eastern sun. Soon after- 
wards he assembled the various peoples whom the Bab- 
ylonian kings had carried into captivity, and restored 
them to their own lands and liberties. 

Further, Prof. Sayce tells that the actual records of 
Nabonidus and Cyrus written by their instructions in 
the language and characters of Babylonia corroborate 
the historic accuracy of many of the prophecies in the 
books of Daniel, and the historic character of the books 
of Ezra and Nehemiah is admitted by all. Indeed, 
many contend the latter are histories only — "mere 
prophecies after the event." It is as unnecessary, as 
it is perhaps still impossible, to prove the historic accu- 
racy of every statement in the Old Testament by oriental 
discoveries of an imperishable nature. But it is beyond 
reasonable contention that these books which comprise 
that sacred record are impregnable as a history of events 
which happened, and have been written and handed 
down by credible men. And in the words of a great 
archseologist, " What has been achieved already is an 
earnest of what will be achieved hereafter, when the 
buried cities and tombs of the East have all been made 
to deliver up their dead." 

The fulfillment of many of these prophecies is as in- 
disputable as the accuracy of their history, and their ful- 
fillment in the past should be accepted as an earnest of 
that of the remainder in the future. There are com- 
puted 333 plain prophecies in the Old Testament con- 
cerning the coming of Jesus Christ. Any one of these 
we are willing to have tested by the axioms already 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 63 

stated, in order to establish them as prophecies contain- 
ing the miraculous and the divine. The latest of these 
were written 400 years B. C, of which we shall men- 
tion only a few. 

There should be an incomparable character sent into 
this world who shall be known as God's Messiah. Jesus 
of Nazareth was known as God's anointed. A herald 
shall prepare the way before Him. John the Baptist 
came and prepared the way for Christ by preaching 
repentance and the remission of sins. 

It was prophesied He should be born at Bethle- 
hem of Judea ; and through a wonderful concurrence of 
events — though the home of His parents was Nazareth — 
He was born in Bethlehem. 

His ministry was predicted to begin at Galilee, and 
it did so. He was to be known as " wonderful," and 
"He spake as never man spake." He was to preach 
good tidings unto men, and myriads have danced for 
joy as they have received His message. His character 
was to be inimitable; and who is there like unto God's 
anointed? He was to be despised and rejected of men; 
and He was so. He was to be sold for thirty pieces of 
silver, and the end of the traitor Judas bore testimony 
that He was, as also the records of Jewish history. He 
was to give sight to the blind; His gentleness was to be 
most gentle; His tenderness most tender; and His mer- 
cy most merciful. And the breath of His gentleness 
was a transformation; the glimpse of His love was life, 
and the touch of His mercy was redemption. His 
cheek should be turned to the smiter, and His back to 
the thongs; but in complaint He should not open His 



64 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 

mouth. He should be put to death; His hands and feet 
pierced, His side riven by a spear; but not a bone of 
His body should be broken. He shall suffer for the sins 
of the world. He was to die as a malefactor, and His 
grave was to be with the wicked. Without quoting far- 
ther may we not ask, are these prophecies not sufficient- 
ly clear? Were they not far, far away from the events? 
Yet they have all been fulfilled in the Savior Jesus 
Christ. And all the leading nations of this age, Chris- 
tians and non= Christians, excepting a blasphemous few, 
declare Him the matchless character of the ages. Then, 
how should anyone dare deny the prophecies and their 
fulfillment, unless he is prepared to prove the contrary? 
During His life He predicted events all of which lit- 
erally came to pass. He foretold His doctrine should 
produce great distress and confusion in the world. It 
is the boast of unbelievers that it has done so. His dis- 
ciples should meet with unfriendly treatment from man- 
kind; and history is stained with the records of their 
martyrdom. The Jews should be rejected as a people 
for their unbelief; and the Gentiles or heathen world 
called to the Christian faith instead. Church history, 
and the conditions of the Jewish people prove the ful- 
fillment of these statements. He said the chief priests 
and scribes should put Him to death, by delivering 
Him to the Gentiles who should mock, scourge, and cru- 
cify Him. Both profane and sacred history attest that 
this came to pass. That all the disciples should forsake 
Him at death, and He should be left without human aid 
to die for the sins of men; and it was so. That the 
fame of the woman who had anointed His feet with 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 65 

ointment, should be as lasting and extensive as the Gos- 
pel; and it is so. That Jerusalem should be destroyed 
while the then generation of people was yet living. 
And the total destruction of the city and of the temple 
accompanied with fearful sights and signs of disaster; 
the persecution of His disciples, the apostasy of some, 
the faithfulness of others, and the spreading of His 
glorious Gospel throughout the Roman world, revealed 
the accuracy of the prediction in every detail. The 
prophecy that false Christs should arise after His death, 
is too well verified to require any lengthened statement 
here. But it may be worthy of mention that in the sec- 
ond century one Caziba set himself at the head of the 
Jewish people as their long expected Messiah. He chose 
a forerunner, raised an army and was anointed king. 
The army of Adrian was sent against him, and he with 
five or six thousand Jews were slain. In the fifth cen- 
tury another impostor rose named Moses Cretensius; 
after him came one Dunaan; then Julian, and for sever- 
al centuries down to the twelfth the East was very fruitful 
in false Christs. In our own time there are many who 
pretend to repeat His divine works, though none seems 
to assume the Messianic name. But all only verify the 
prophecies uttered by the Divine One who foretold 
their coming. The New Testament prophecy, that 
false teachers should come into the infant church of 
Christ is sufficiently shown to have been fulfilled in the 
distressing fact, that within the first four centuries there 
were no fewer than 132 sects of Christians. It is very 
probable that the difference between most of them was 
very slight, but it is nevertheless true, the divisions were 



66 OLD TSTAMEENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 

caused by the dust of error bedimming the pure light of 
truth. 

Once more, notice a few of the many prophecies con- 
cerning the Jewish people. 

The book of Deuteronomy was written at least 3,300 
years ago, and it contains the following concerning the 
Jewish people: "The Lord shall scatter these among 
all people from the one end of the earth even to the 
other." ..." and thou shalt become an astonish- 
ment, and a proverb, and a by=word among all the nations, 
whither the Lord shall lead thee." In Leviticus, Jere- 
miah, Amos, and Hosea, similar prophecies concerning 
that people as a nation are made. These are all suffi- 
ciently explicit. No one need misunderstand them. 
Some of them were made in the halcyon days of Judah, 
and when there was no likelihood of such an event occur- 
ring. The question is, have they been fulfilled? And 
the answer is, " Where is the Jewish nation with all its 
ancient glory?" Yet the people are not destroyed. 
The Jew is a Jew everywhere; yet they are of no na- 
tion in the world. From the dispersion at the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era 
until now, they have found among the nations of the 
earth " no rest for the soles of their feet." The Jew is 
"a man without a country." Some call the United 
States their promised land. But it requires no prophet 
to foretell that should the formation of a Jewish state 
in it ever be attempted, the paradise would be made a 
garden of briers and thorns, with a flaming sword to 
protect it against Jewish ownership and government. 

Again, the cup of their suffering as prophesied has 



OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS—PROPHECY 67 

been filled to overflowing. Every civilized nation on 
earth excepting America, has persecuted them, simply 
because they were Jewish people. There only have they 
been always permitted to live without any disability; 
and only last month a Jewish rabbi was priviliged to 
open the Republican National Convention at St. Louis 
with prayer. But even liberty loving America in her 
proverbial good nature tolerates their persecution by 
Russia without protest, and cultivates the friendship of 
their most cruel persecutor of modern times. Russell, 
in his " Examination of the Bible," collates a table 
which shows the Jews were conquered by the Romans 
in A. D. 70, and were butchered, dispersed, and en- 
slaved. They were suppressed with slaughter by 
Lusius in 117. Caesar Gallius crushed them as they 
rose to rebel in 352. They were expelled from Alexan- 
dria by Cyril in 415; persecuted for one hundred years 
in Persia from 430 to 530; cruelly tortured by Roman 
Catholics in Italy about 520; entirely outlawed by Jus- 
tinian in 528; persecuted in Spain in 612; expelled 
from Medina by Mahommed in 623; plundered and 
scattered by France in 1010; massacred by Crusaders 
in Germany in 1096; robbed of large sums by Henry 
II. of England, and murdered wholesale in Lon- 
don in 1189; persecuted again by King John in 1210, 
and banished from England on penalty of death by Ed- 
ward I. in 1290; expelled from all Papal states by Pope 
Pius V. in 1596, and from Russia in 1795. And so the 
heartsickening record continues, showing that the hand 
of every nation is dyed with Jewish blood, and the 
sword of every land has helped to disperse the nation 



68 OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS— PROPHECY 

Israel. There can be no stronger testimony to the ful- 
fillment of prophecy than the dispersion throughout the 
world of these people, and the maltreatment of the na- 
tionless Jews. They form one hand on the dial of his- 
tory which unmistakeably points us to the truthfulness 
of God's holy Word. Sir Wm. Jones, perhaps the 
greatest lawyer, linguist, and philosopher of his day, 
said of it, " The antiquity of those compositions no man 
should doubt, for the unstrained application of them to 
events long subsequent to their publication is a solid 
ground of belief that they were genuine predictions." 
Sir Isaac Newton said, " I find more sure marks of au- 
thenticity in the Bible than in any profane history 
whatever." And the fresh light shining from these an- 
cient suns of history which have risen from the dark- 
ness of the past, place their authenticity beyond dis- 
pute. It was David Hume, the infidel, who confessed 
he had never read the Bible with attention, and perhaps 
the chief reason for so much disloyalty to God, and 
scepticism concerning the Bible, is neglect to search 
with care and prayer, the Scriptures, and compare them 
with its contemporaneous histories. He who is the 
center of their truth and the luminary of their pages, 
said, " Search the writings for they testify of me." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ES- 
PECIALLY ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS. 

" The word of our God shall stand forever" Isaiah. 

The genius of true criticism is seen in research, de- 
liberation, comparison, and judgment; and when it is 
applied to the Holy Bible it should be clothed with a 
spirit of reverence. Whatever else of value to the age 
he may be, the flippant smatterer who flings his sneer 
at the Scriptures on every street corner, over the social 
board, or across the office desk, or into newspaper 
column, or magazine article, as if it were a cheap tin- 
selled rag, to be torn into fragments that the tatters 
might become a source of vanity to the scorner, or 
cheap sport to his audience, is not a capable critic. 

It cannot, however, be denied that the assailants of the 
Bible too often possess just such a spirit. Nor is the 
one who is more concerned to win a victory than dis- 
cover truth, an improvement on the critic of scornful 
vanity. Indeed, there are several books which contain 
criticisms of the Bible, which give the impression that 
the writers had not only been present at the crowning 
of King Saul, sat in Babylon with Daniel, and cheered 
that noble youth, been in all the battles of the wilder- 
ness with Joshua and Caleb, and themselves dictated 
on Sinai's peak that unsurpassed decalogue of morals 

69 



70 ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 

to Moses; but it seems as if they also had superin- 
tended the building of Noah's Ark, grown fruits and 
trimmed flowers in Eden's garden and managed the 
little job of creating this universe — so flippant and 
arrogant is their style. That spirit has no abiding 
place in discussing the text of sacred literature. 
It is in the valley of humility, and not on the hills 
of vanity, truth is discovered. The miner diligently 
digging in the sequestered spots of earth discovers 
gold; the clown in a circus finds a fool's cap and bells, 
and a gaping crowd. The Lord Himself said, " I thank 
thee oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, it has pleased 
thee to hide these things from the wise and prudent, and 
reveal them unto babes." The American apostle of in- 
fidelity has stated, "There are only three manuscripts 
upon which the Christian world relies for the authentici- 
ty of the New Testament. It is true, there are three 
very ancient manuscripts of the New Testament which 
are of great importance to the Christian world. But to 
say they are relied upon by Christians to prove the his- 
toric character of the New Testament, is contrary to fact. 
For, if they never existed, the facts of Christianity 
would not be affected in the least, and the Christ of the 
New Testament should remain still, the center of spirit- 
ual light and life, the Savior of men. The intelligent 
Christian world depends upon similar proof in establish- 
ing the truthfulness of these writings, to that which 
unbelievers rely upon in order to prove the authenticity 
of profane writings of like age. There are many books 
of antiquity whose authenticity no one denies. Their 
credibility is established according to rational rules of 



ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 71 

criticism, and accepted as true without further question, 
though there is no manuscript of them in existence. 
Seneca wrote some books, a few years before Christ was 
born, and though we do not know of any manuscripts of 
them they are accepted as trustworthy because Tacitus 
and Quintillian, writers of his day, make reference to, 
and criticisms upon, his works. In the same manner are 
the works of Livy, Tacitus, Plato, Socrates, Cicero, and 
Demosthenes proved to be authentic, though some of 
them are centuries older than the writings of the New 
Testament. Why then is the New Testament not acccept- 
ed on similar evidence? Is it because the book claims to 
contain sacred and inspired writings? But that should 
not affect the weight of ordinary evidence in their favor, 
any more than proof of a title to church property should 
be subject to exceptional doubt or criticism. It is per- 
haps more than probable, prejudice has arisen against 
these writings because of the popular impression that 
the writers were ignorant men. However, this also is a 
false impression, for though they were not all learned in 
the schools, they were not ignorant men, as we to-day 
use that term. Their master Jesus, was unlearned in 
the schools, but the most reckless has never classed him 
as ignorant. Nor should the term ever be applied to 
his biographers and the writers of the New Testa- 
ment. 

Matthew had been a public taxgatherer, and therefore 
came from a class who were famous for their shrewdness 
and knowing in the devious ways of worldliness. He 
wrote his gospel to his Jewish brethren in the then 
prevailing Hebrew language, which is Syro^Chaldaic. 



72 ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 

Mark was a promising young man of good family. 
He wrote to the dictation of St. Peter for the churches 
in Egypt and Italy. 

Luke was a physician of at least some professional 
education, and wrote his gospel about fifteen years after 
Christ's ascension, and the Acts of the Apostles some- 
what later. 

John and James, as fishermen seem to have been in 
easy circumstances, and far above the average of their 
class. John was a man of great natural ability, a master 
of spiritual philosophy, who combined the contempla- 
tive and the practical in all his writings. He wrote his 
gospel to make known what the Lord had revealed con- 
cerning His divinity, and to contradict the heresy of 
the Ebionites, the unitarians of that age. Peter pos- 
sessed many gifts which, when adorned by the Christian 
graces and enriched by experience, should save him 
from the charge of ignorance. Jude was a brother of 
our Lord, and Paul was as a Hercules in learning and 
a Gabriel in grace. There is no trace of infantile inso- 
lence, of the vulgarity of ignorance, nor of shiftless in- 
difference in any of the books. Moreover, the writers 
were profoundly learned in the school of Christ, and in 
the college of experience, from whence the stores of 
life's richest treasures and the cream of its most in- 
spiring thought, have come. Excepting glimpses of 
supplementary truth and gleams of ethereal glory vouch- 
safed to several of the more favored of them, the 
writers had seen, heard, and handled the truths which 
they penned. They had learned them from His lips 
during the three years they were with the Master; and 



ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 73 

through fire and water, sickness and death they lived 
them, and labored in them for thirty years, ere the first 
of them was written. So that they wrote out of an un- 
usual fund of knowledge, and after many years of train- 
ing in the things of which they wrote. 

And each letter was written by each writer without 
the knowledge of the other. Their writings were read in 
most of the churches during their lifetime on the Lord's 
Day, and there was every opportunity for discovering 
their character, whether true or false. History informs 
us, Polycarp was a pupil of St. John. Justin Martyr 
who was a disciple of Polycarp, was born ten years 
before John died. Barnabas, the companion of Paul, 
quoted from Matthew's gospel. Justin Martyr of the 
second century cites passages from all the gospels, 
Tertullian, Eusebius, and Cyprian who lived in the 
second and third centuries recognize these writings as 
" Scripture," "Divine Scripture," "Oracles of the Lord," 
"The writings of the evangelists and apostles." Celsus 
the noted infidel of the second century shows in his writ- 
ings a close acquaintance with the gospels. Porphyry, 
another eminent controversialist against Christianity 
recognized their existence; and the apostate Emperor 
Julian of the fourth century makes mention of the gos- 
pels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and these witnesses, 
which, for irreligious purposes and secular writings 
would be considered excellent, bring us to the date of 
the existing New Testament manuscripts. 

But there are undisputed writings contained in the 
New Testament which in themseves form a bulwark of 
evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament 



74 ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 

which is unassailable. The epistles of Paul to the Ro- 
mans, the two written by him to the Corinthian church, 
and his letter to the Gralatians, have not been disputed 
by anyone recognized as an authority upon such ques- 
tions. It is, of course, acknowledged that three of 
the destructive critics are known to have attacked the 
trustworthiness of these epistles. But more than one 
of the leaders of the same school of criticism have 
deemed these attacks of no importance and unworthy 
of serious notice. It is well for all Christendom to pon- 
der this fact. For any impregnable truth of a generally 
accepted system such as Christianity which has been 
searched and sifted; anathematized and objurgated; 
cursed and scorned, and which after nineteen centuries 
of such treatment, must be admitted as historic, is 
worthy of highest respect and earnest advocacy. In- 
deed, it would be well for our Christian people, though 
not so well for the cause of unbelief, if this truth con- 
cerning these four epistles were more widely known. 
Not long ago I stated in a sermon that these letters 
had never been disputed, and a gentleman in the 
audience, who had been educated in part for the minis- 
try of the Episcopalian church of England, came to me 
at the close of the service and said, " Sir, I think you 
must have made a mistake. For I ceased studying for 
the ministry because of the prevailing belief among my 
circle which was fairly representative of educatedjsocie- 
ty, that there is no book in the New Testament which 
had been universally accepted by any critical school as 
historically true." And yet the evidence upon which 
they are so received is easily accessible to any student 



ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 75 

of church history. The history of Christian literature 
from the period succeeding the church of the apostles 
contains positive evidence that these four epistles ex- 
isted. They were rapidly disseminated throughout the 
various Christian communities, and their teachings 
obeyed by the authorities in the several churches as the 
writings of the apostle Paul. 

St. Paul died some time between the years 64 and 67. 
A little more or less than twenty years later two writ- 
ings are met with: one is dated from Rome towards the 
close of the reign of the Emperor Domitian in the year 
95, and the other was composed at Alexandria about the 
same time. The first is a letter from Clement, who was 
then one of the presbyters of the Christian church in 
Rome. He was instructed to write to the Christian 
church in which existed some opposition to the minis- 
ter of it who had been appointed by the apostle. Even 
the names are me ntioned of the deputies appointed to 
carry the letter to Corinth and use their good offices in 
trying to heal the breach. This letter of Clement was 
afterwards read frequently in the church of Corinth 
and then placed in its archives. A letter written sixty 
years afterwards by the then minister (Mr. Deny's) to 
the minister (Mr. Soter) of the church in Rome says, 
" We have to=day celebrated the holy day of our Lord 
and read your letter; and are careful to read and re-read 
for our correction, the one written to as by Clement." ! 
In his letter to Corinth Clement wrote, " Why do you 
disagree and scatter the members of Christ, and carry 
your dissensions to such an extent that we forget we 

1 Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, IV, 31. 



76 ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 

are members one of another? Refer again to the 
letter of the blessed apostle Paul. What did he write 
to you at the beginning when the Gospel was first 
preached to you? . . . Now you see who those are 
who trouble you and destroy your brotherly love. 
These things that we have heard are a disgrace unto 
you, and unworthy of Christians, that one or two men 
should lead the old established church of Corinth to 
rebel against the elders. And this report has not only 
reached us, but also others who are strangers to our 
faith, so that on account of your folly the name of the 
Lord is blasphemed." 

The second writing to which reference has been made 
is the epistle of Barnabas. In it there are quoted the 
exact words of St. Paul in the 13th chapter of Romans: 
" Behold I have given thee Abraham as a father to the 
Gentiles who believed in God, in a state of uncircum- 
cision," and also words from the epistle to the Corinthi- 
ans, showing that the church of Alexandria possessed in 
Barnabas, her minister, these two epistles of Paul. At 
the end of the first century, these four epistles had been 
communicated to other churches by those who received 
them. Irenseus in Gaul, Clement in Egypt, Tertullian 
in Western Africa, who lived and labored as the heads 
of their several districts in the church, state how the 
apostolic epistles were the property of the church, and 
were deposited as such in the house of one of the elders. 1 
About the year 140 A. D. one Marcion taught at Rome, 
a doctrine entirely opposed to those contained in these 
epistles, and Irenaeus also appealed to these writings of 

1 Tertullian, Against Marcion, IV, 5. 



ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 77 

Paul, and to the gospels for proof that he did not teach 
Christian doctrine. 1 He also added, " Every question 
will be cleared up for him, when he has read attentively 
the Scriptures which are kept in the houses of those 
who are presbyters in the church." 2 

Soon after the middle of the second century a transla- 
tion of these writings of Paul into the Syriac language 
was prepared, and distributed in the eastern portion of 
the Christian church. In the West a Latin translation of 
them appeared about the same time, and in the library 
of Milan a most important document was found by 
Muratori bearing on this question. It dates from the 
year 160 A. D. and was probably composed in the name 
of one of the early Christian churches of the West which 
desired to instruct others in these writings. Dr. Godet 
in writing of this document says: " After having spoken 
of the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, the 
author goes on to say, ' As to the epistles of Paul they 
speak for themselves, as to what places they were sent, 
and for what purpose they were written. Paul espe- 
cially forbade the Corinthians to indulge in the schism 
of heresy; the Galatians to practice circumcision, and 
he expounded to the Romans the plan of the Scriptures 
showing how Christ is the beginning, and the end of 
them." Therefore, we conclude, because these writings 
were in possession of the early Christian churches, cop- 
ied, quoted, and discussed alike by Christian, infidel, 
and heathen as the writings of St. Paul, and handed 
down from generation to generation, they have been 

1 Heretics, IV, 32. 

2 Ibid. 



78 ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 

accepted as indisputable. They may contain chaff or 
grain in their subject- matter, but they are facts. They 
may be false or true in doctrine, but they are history. 
They may be inspired, or mere human productions, but 
they are neither traditions nor myths. They are in the 
church and in the world as a rock immovable, and 
always recognized as one against which the seas of 
unbelieving criticism have gently flowed and mildly 
frowned, but whose existence they have been unable 
reasonably to deny. 

And these undisputed writings of Christianity are of 
incalculable benefit to the church of Christ and the 
great army of truth seekers. They contain all the 
essential truths of the doctrine and polity in the Chris- 
tian system. They tell of man as spiritually lost, an 
alien to God. They reveal the man Christ Jesus as a 
world's Savior. They teach the penitent of his regene- 
ration by the Holy Spirit. 

They promise final reward to the righteous and pun- 
ishment to the wicked, and reveal the church of God as 
a family, with Jesus as its elder brother. Therefore, 
though it were shown that Moses wrote mistakes only; 
that the rest of the Bible was a myth, or unreliable tra- 
dition, a mere dream of the superstitious, the religion of 
Jesus Christ would not have lost its revelation. For 
in these undisputed epistles we have the whole story. 
King Jesus on His way to glory by way of Calvary's 
cross for the sinful is here. His infinite love shines 
undimmed here: the Gospel's ever brightening hope of 
immortality, its crowning triumph over the dark, cold 
grave is here. The noblest inspiration, a divine enthusi- 



ITS UNDISPUTED WRITINGS 79 

asm for every life is here. In these undisputed epistles 
we have nothing less than all the fundamental doctrines 
of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Oh, that 
proud unbelief, perplexing doubt, and delusive indiffer- 
ence would lend their ear, and hear that notwithstand- 
ing their fickle moods, foolish foibles, and defiant scorn 
there still remains one boulder of the quarry of eternal 
truth which nothing under the stars can remove or 
ruin: a boulder upon which if anyone will humbly 
stand he shall behold life's difficulties o'ercome, the 
yawning gulf of death bridged, and the dazzling spirit- 
ual splendors of the Christ of God forevermore. But 
should anyone fall upon it in the sullenness or strife 
of wicked rebellion, "it were better for such he had 
never been born." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE STORY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Bring when thou contest . . . the parchments." Paul. 

Eminent specialists in Biblical lore tell us there are 
1,021 acknowledged manuscripts of the Bible in exist- 
ence, which are dated variously from the year 325 A. D., 
to the thirteenth century. These are distributed chiefly 
among the great libraries throughout the civilized world. 
Two hundred and fifty of them may be found in Eng- 
land, about one-half of which are in Oxford; seventy- 
five in the British museum in London; twenty=four in 
Lambeth Palace; nineteen in the libraries at Cam- 
bridge; seventeen in the library of Robert Curzon in 
Essex; and the remainder are in other places. Scotland 
possesses seven of them and Ireland, three. Italy con- 
tains three hundred and twenty — more than one=half of 
which are in Rome, and over one hundred are in the 
Vatican library. Fifty are in Florence, twenty in 
Turin, nine in Naples, fifty in Venice, six in Modena, 
two in Messina, and a few are scattered. Two hundred 
and fifty^eight are in the Imperial library in Paris, and 
there are ten others supposed to be in France. In Ger- 
many and Austria there are ninety; Vienna has twenty- 
eight; Munich, twenty-seven; Hamburg, six; Pesth, 
two; and others are at various other places throughout 
the country. Russia has over seventy, of which the 

80 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 81 

most important are in St. Petersburg. There are nine- 
teen in Spain: one in Toledo, and all the rest are in the 
Escurial (the king's palace), at Madrid. Switzerland 
possesses fourteen; Holland, six; Denmark, three; and 
Sweden, one. 

Parts of some of these manuscripts exist in separate li- 
braries, though they are none the less treasured on that 
account, and only about thirty contain all the books of 
the Old and New Testaments. Two of exceptional 
value because of their age, were discovered in frag- 
ments, one portion of which is now in the library at St. 
Petersburg, while the other parts are in the Bodlean 
library of Oxford. 

It is, however, of the three most ancient manuscripts 
of the Scriptures that I wish to relate the story which 
on my part is merely a collation of facts brought forth 
from their obscurity. These manuscripts are known to 
Bible students as the Alexandrian, the Vatican, and the 
Sinaitic, each deriving its name either from the place 
where it was discovered, or is now kept. 

The Alexandrian manuscript was found in Egypt, and 
is now kept in the British Museum. It was presented to 
Charles I. in 1628 by the Patriarch of Constantinople, 
who brought it from Egypt for that purpose. And 
when in 1753 the British Museum was founded, it was 
transferred from the royal private library to the great 
national depositary. It is in four volumes, three of 
which contain the Old Testament in the Greek version, 
and the fourth contains the New Testament version, 
though it is acknowledged by all competent critics to 
have many defects. The Patriarch of Constantinople 



82 NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 

who secured it during his previous patriarchate in 
Egypt, testified that the report concerning it is as fol- 
lows: " It was copied by Thecla, a Christian lady from 
among the nobility, thirteen hundred years previous to 
his having secured it." Thecla is generally regarded as 
a friend and valued assistant of Gregory Nazianzum 
who lived in the fourth century. Nearly all the 
critics agree that .the manuscript is as old as the 
fifth century. The vellum of this ancient book on 
which it is written is well preserved, though in 
many places holes appear in several pages, and the 
material is so fragile that it is kept under glass. 
The privilege of handling it is allowed to none ex- 
cepting the most competent scholars, and it is ac- 
corded to such only for the purposes of textual study. 
The letters in which it is written are called uncial, and 
are round and large. There is no separation between 
the words, though sometimes marks of punctuation ap- 
pear. The text is divided into sections called heads, 
and the paragraphs and periods are marked by a new 
line and a capital letter. This manuscript is the most 
ancient in which capital letters occur. Each page has 
two columns, each containing fifty lines, with about 
twenty letters to the line. Judging from the facsimile 
of the plate contained in the English edition of 
" Home's Introduction to the Bible," the writing appears 
like so many small capital letters joined together, and 
must be most difficult to read. This manuscript was 
the first to be carefully applied to the correction of the 
text of the New Testament by that great critical scholar 
Patrick Young, the librarian to King Charles I. Three 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 83 

separate copies of it were first made by different schol- 
ars; then in 1786 the text was published, and thus this 
ancient document was given to the world by the print- 
ing press. So accurate was that edition that when 
compared with the manuscript there were discovered 
errors in only two letters. 

The Vatican manuscript was, until recently, consid- 
ered the most important one in the possession of the 
Christian world. The Vatican library — where it was 
discovered and still remains — was founded by Pope 
Nicholas V. in the year 1448. More than 100,000 
volumes are therein deposited, among which are 25,000 
manuscripts. This manuscript of the Bible is labelled 
" Codex B 1209," in the class catalogue of the library, 
and has probably occupied a place in it from the time 
of its establishment. Previous to its location there, it 
is believed to have belonged to a learned Greek priest 
named Bessarion. His house in Rome was an academy 
on a small scale, the repository of a large collection of 
ancient manuscripts and the resort of learned men. This 
manuscript is perhaps one hundred years older than the 
Alexandrian one, and according to the best critics of 
the age, of writing material, it belongs to the fourth 
century. Indeed, several of them assign it to the year 
325. 

The whole of the text is bound in one volume which 
measures ten and a half inches in length, ten in 
breadth, and four or five in thickness. It does not, 
however, contain the whole Bible. The text is also un- 
cial, of the same character as, only a little smaller than, 
those of the Alexandrian manuscript. There are no di- 



84 NEW TESTAMENT MAXUSCBIPTS 

visions between its words, but some times there is a space 
between the words to denote a change of subject by the 
author. The titles to the various books are written on 
the top of the pages, words are added and letters re- 
touched by later copyists., and the withering touch of 
time has faded the ink of the text, all indicating the 
great age of this document. 

This celebrated manuscript has always been considered 
of the highest value in determining the true readings of 
the text of Scripture. And yet we are most credibly in- 
formed that it was with great difficulty any scholars out- 
side the official circle within the Vatican gained access 
to its pages. Indeed., the jealousy with which it was 
guarded was equalled only by the reluctance of the 
Popish authorities to publish it. Both are well illus- 
trated by the unsuccessful attempts made by great Bib- 
lical scholars to study and copy its contents. Not until 
the beginning of this century was any earnest effort 
made in this direction. The first, though only partially 
successful, was undertaken by Cardinal Mai. and com- 
pleted in 1838. That work, however., never received the 
approval of the censors of the press in the Church of 
Rome, and it was only after Garibaldi's struggles for 
freedom the Cardinal was at liberty to publish it. He 
originally offered a copy of it to a publisher in Berlin, 
but that was. however, declined. After the Cardinal's 
death the work was published in a mutilated form by 
order of the Pope. In 1543 Dr. Tischendorf, in 1845 
Dr. Tregelles, and in 1561 Dean Alford — all in turn — 
visited the Pope of Rome for the purpose of obtaining 
permission to copy its contents, but without avail. 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 85 

However, in 1866 Teschendorf made another attempt 
with better success. Before this time he had discovered 
the Sinaitic manuscript of the Bible and had it pub- 
lished, and a copy of it sent to the Pope. Armed with 
letters of introduction from many dignitaries in Europe, 
he went forth on his mission once more, and after a 
long diplomatic war between himself and the represen- 
tatives of the Pope, he succeeded in obtaining for a 
limited time permission to study it three hours daily. 
In 1867 the copy was published in the common Greek 
type. Thus the contents of this buried treasure of the 
fourth century became the property of the learned 
world, and its history known to mankind. 

But perhaps the most interesting, as well as the most 
valuable, is the story of the Sinaitic manuscript. 

Helena was the name of the mother of Constantine the 
Great, who was the first Christian emperor of Rome, and 
she was also a Christian. Many stories, true and false, 
of her piety and charity are told, and many spots in 
Palestine have monuments to her sweet memory. 
Nearly two hundred years after her death the emperor 
Justinian built a church on what was believed to be 
Mount Sinai, and also a fortress to protect it. To-day, 
however, there is only one group of buildings there 
known as the Convent of St. Catherine, and named 
after a martyred niece of St. Helena. Travelers tell us 
the buildings are quite as much fortress, as a church or 
convent. Here, through many centuries, a brotherhood 
of monks has had its home. Here a rich library grew 
up in course of the centuries in which their seclusion 
had enabled them to pursue their own course unmo- 



86 NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 

lested, whether it was sacred or secular. Once on a 
time the convent was the resort of many pilgrims, who 
went there from Egypt and Syria, Constantinople and 
Rome. They took with them manuscripts and other 
treasures, and gave them as offerings to the monks to 
enrich the value of their library. But long ago these 
pilgrimages ceased, because the zeal of the monks for 
sacred learning and a holy life waned, until the place 
became more like a large hotel in the desert for trav- 
elers, where prayers are said moi'ning and evening, than 
a convent or monastery. As illustrative of the igno- 
rance and indolence of these men, though banished 
upon one of the earth's sacred spots, where all the 
glory and the grandeur of the supernatural clothe with 
their halo the secular, there lay buried for unknown 
ages this ancient manuscript of the New Testament, 
called the Sinaitic. And it was saved from destruction 
in a place which should have been for all such literature 
a sacred and safe asylum, only by the providential arrival 
of Tischendorf, one of the greatest of European Biblical 
scholars. This man in his researches had concluded 
there must be a large store of precious manuscripts 
" hidden in dust and darkness " in these eastern mon- 
asteries. Therefore, in the spring of 1844 he embarked 
for Egypt and Syria. In May of the same year he 
started for Sinai, and arrived at the convent on the 24th 
of the same month. He says in his description of the 
convent, " The only entrance to it is thirty feet high 
to which the visitor is pulled up by a rope." He was al- 
lowed free access to the library which he found very rich 
in manuscripts. As he examined the volumes upon the 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 87 

shelves his eye fell upon a large basket full of old 
parchments standing upon the floor, apparently consid- 
ered of no value, and waiting only to be used as fire 
kindlings. Upon turning over the mouldered pieces he 
found to his great surprise a number of leaves of the 
Old Testament in Greek, which bore evidence of being 
more ancient than any he had ever seen. He was per- 
mitted to take forty= three leaves of the manuscript which 
proved to be parts of the books of Chronicles, Nehe- 
miah, Esther, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Isaiah, of 
the Old Testament. But during this visit nothing more 
could be gained, as in proportion as Tischendorf 's inter- 
est grew these hitherto despised papers quickly in- 
creased in value in the eyes of the monks. In 1853 — 
ten years afterwards — he again stood beneath the walls 
of the convent waiting to be hoisted by the rope, but 
when he reached the library not a trace of the coveted 
parchments could be found. Three years later he ap- 
plied to the Russian government for a commission to 
make an eastern journey in the interests of Biblical 
science, thinking thereby to attain his object. After 
some delay this was granted, and in 1859 he started the 
third time for the convent in the desert. This time 
he was welcomed most heartily, and the custodian of 
the books showed him every courtesy, but to his 
great regret he could nowhere find the desired parch- 
ments. Only three days before he was to leave for 
home he walked out with the steward of the con- 
vent. After their return the steward informed him 
that he also had been reading the Septuagint — 
a Greek version of the Old Testament Scriptures — 



88 NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 

and as he spoke he placed in the hands of Tischen- 
dorf a bulky volume wrapped in red cloth. Im- 
mediately the great scholar knew his wish was fulfilled; 
and therein he found the very fragments he had taken 
from the waste-basket fifteen years before, with other 
parts of the Old Testament, the whole of the New, the 
epistle of Barnabas already referred to, and some other 
epistles of minor importance. He was permitted to 
take the volume to his room where he literally danced 
for joy, and for several nights afterwards he felt as 
though it were wickedness to sleep. 

After much negotiation, it was presented or loaned 
by the monks of the convent to the Emperor of Russia 
as head of the Greek church, by whom it was deposited 
in the library at St. Petersburg. In due time Teschen- 
dorf with the aid of assistants made an edition of it in 
facsimile, and by the munificence of the Emperor of 
Russia a copy was sent to every great institution and 
library throughout the Christain world. 

This Sinaitic manuscript which is marked A in Greek 
has three hundred and forty = six leaves, one hundred and 
ninety-nine contain portions of the Old Testament, 
while the balance is comprised of the whole New Testa- 
ment writings, and some other epistles. Thus, it was 
after great toil and expense, much opposition and crit- 
icism these priceless manuscripts have been brought 
forth from the obscurity ol the ages into the light of 
modern day by Christian scholarship, to confirm the 
already abundant, indisputable evidence of the historic 
character of the manuscripts of the Bible. 

The question is often asked, " How do experts know 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 89 

the age of parchments?" And one answer is, in a sim- 
ilar manner to that by which an expert knows the age 
of a certain style in dress. The style of the letters is 
studied closely, and their special peculiarities reveal the 
secrets of their time, and sometimes even the hand of 
the writer. For example, the employment of uncials al- 
ready described, instead of letters in another form 
proves the manuscript to belong to the age in which that 
style of writing prevailed. Also, the fact that the writing 
was executed in vellum, would show it was not written 
during the later centuries in which the rougher paper, 
made of cotton rags, was used. Again, if there are sev- 
eral columns upon a single page, which was the style 
of arrangement employed in writing on a papyrus roll, 
it would reveal such writing to belong to the period 
when papyri prevailed. Therefore, the evidence of this 
kind used in determining the age of a manuscript is in 
no way misleading. And in every age there has been suffi- 
cient interest taken in writings of antiquity, critical ex- 
amination, and diligent comparison made by scholars so 
as to reach accurately, at least the approximate date of 
the manuscript investigated. Moreover, when impos- 
tors have attempted to deceive the world by submitting 
to it a forged manuscript it has invariably been fol- 
lowed by speedy detection. Indeed, it has been confi- 
dently asserted that there are at least fifty persons in 
Britain alone, besides those in other Christian lands, 
who by these tests would at once detect the most 
highly finished imitation of manuscript writing that the 
most clever dishonesty could produce. From these 
manuscripts it is seen that the Bible is the only ancient 



90 NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 

book of the many literary treasures of antiquity which 
are so highly prized, that can lay claim to such strong 
historic evidence as these manuscripts furnish. And 
this is evidence which would be considered valid in any 
court in a civilized land: therefore, we conclude there is 
no book read in Christendom whose historic character 
is so fully sustained, or creditably vouched for, as that 
of the Bible. 

And by criticism and translation of these manu- 
scripts, and others containing the sacred writings, we 
received our English Bible in its present form, and al- 
most perfect text. From these ancient texts there were 
versions made in Latin, Syriac, and Chaldee, and then 
into English. These sacred writings which we call " our 
Bible," were not revealed or produced in a day; they 
were things of growth whose obscure seed has brought 
forth a most bountiful harvest of divine truth, to every 
humble home and believing heart. 

The first old Anglo-Saxon version of the Bible was 
produced, we are told, in the seventh century by a monk 
named Csedinan. Then fifty years afterwards the vener- 
able Bede died while writing another. Edfred the 
King of England also closed his life while engaged in 
the translation of the Bible into the common tongue. 
William of Shoreham, and Richard Rolle prepared a par- 
tial Bible in English in the year 1330, and twenty=five 
years after was begun the version of John "Wycliffe and 
Nicholas Hereford which was not finished until 1380, 
and it was the first complete English Bible published. 
It is needless to mention that all of these completed 
efforts were banned by the Church of Rome, as also by 



NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 91 

the state. It was not until the Protestant Reformation 
dawned, the Christian world obtained the first printed 
copy of an English Bible. In 1526 William Tyndale pub- 
lished the Bible in the mother tongue of the English 
people, for which incalculable boon to the world he and 
one of his assistants (John Frith), were burnt at the 
stake. But the printing preys became a handmaid of 
Christianity which multiplied the Word, and the ashes 
of the martyr publishers were seeds which increased 
ten thousand fold. Several versions followed during 
the sixteenth century which were either reproductions 
of Tyndale's translation, or revisions of versions that 
had been based upon it. In 1582 the Roman Catholic 
church began, and in 1609 completed the Douay Bible. 
This version does not differ essentially from the author- 
ized version used by the Protestants, though much has 
been affirmed to the contrary. The greatest objection to 
it is that notes are appended to the text which con- 
tain the church's interpretation of it, and in so far 
as that is arbitrary it debars the reader from the right 
of private judgment. In 1611 during the reign of 
James I., the King's Bible, or, as it was frequently 
called, " the King James Version," was translated and 
published; and has since been used by Protestant 
Christendom, as the Authorized Version of the Bible. 
It is the result of commendable and scholarly effort 
to unify the various independent versions which then 
existed. In 1881 the revised version of the New 
Testament, and that of the Old Testament in 1885 was 
published; and though it contains many improvements 
upon the authorized version, it is hardly likely to soon, if 



92 NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS 

ever, supersede the older one, though only time can de- 
termine. But it is a great cause for profoundest grati- 
tude to the God of our fathers that we have received 
under His guiding hand, and by the diligence of His 
servants, not only the Bible in our native tongue whose 
historic character is authentic, but we have the book in 
the best possible translation of it, by the combined 
scholarship of Britain and America. Surely this age 
should realize its God-given privilege, and its parallel 
responsibility to our generation for this common heri- 
tage of an open and accurate Bible. If we discard it 
we throw aside the history of human progress in all that 
uplifts humanity. Deny it its rightful place and power, 
and with it shall wither the arm of right, palsied shall 
become the tongue of truth, omnipotent shall might be 
over right, darkness over light, moral and spiritual 
death over life. And soon then shall there be written 
over the hearth in every home, over the throne of every 
heart, and upon the banner of every nation the irrevo- 
cable words of the doomsman, "Ichabod! Ichabod! thy 
glory hath departed!" 



CHAPTER VII. 

WHEN AND HOW WAS THE BIBLE CANONIZED? 

" The Bible is the only rule of faith and obedience." 

Westminster Divines. 

The word canon means rule, a straight staff, a meas- 
uring rod. In things moral and religious it means a 
guide or model. So among religious writers it meant 
a leading principle, a divine writing, or law, applied to 
religious life. It gradually developed until it meant a 
type of Christian doctrine which distinguished the or- 
thodox from the heretical. Because of this latest use 
of it the plural word "canons" was used of ecclesiasti- 
cal regulations, and people of old spoke of "the canons 
of the church." Most people are acquainted with the 
falsehood, many times refuted, that the Bible as we 
have it was never recognized as such until centuries 
after the age of the apostles, when it was received by a 
church council, and thereby canonized. The evident 
truth is, those books comprising the Bible were received 
as the rule of religious faith and life by the people at 
the time when they were written. Of course, it is one 
thing to have them accepted as an authoritative rule of 
life by the people who received them, and another to 
receive them in a church council or assembly, in one or 
more volumes of a book. The latter is an empty form 
which can give at best only an official sanction, but the 

93 



94 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

former is the act of acceptance by the people of God of 
the Scriptures as their canon of faith, which is the es- 
sential substance of the whole question. 

It may be seen at a glance that the Pentateuch, or 
the five books of Moses, was not received by any formal 
resolution in order to obtain its high place of divine au- 
thority in the church of the wilderness. These books, 
we now conclude, are at least true records of history; 
and as such we are permitted to admit them into court, 
and hear their testimony on this question. They tell 
us the five books of Moses were, when finished, rever- 
ently accepted, and carefully deposited in the Ark of the 
Covenant, In Deut. 31: 24-26 we read, "And it came 
to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the 
words of this law in a book until they were finished . 
. . he commanded the Levites . . . saying, take 
the book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of 
the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be here 
for a witness against thee." That is a plain declaration, 
concerning the how and when of these books that no 
one can fail to understand, and none need hesitate to 
receive. It also seems that Joshua added his book to 
the volume of the Pentateuch, for we read in Joshua 1 : 
8; 24: 26, that, "Joshua wrote these words in the book 
of the law of God." As Alexander has stated in his 
" Old Testament Canon," " there can be no reasonable 
doubt that copies of these books were written before the 
original was deposited in the holy place." Otherwise, 
there could have been no copies for use among the peo- 
ple, and such were essentially necessary. The writings 
contained in some of the six books were of great inter- 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 95 

est to the whole nation, and of inestimable value to the 
proper conduct of its civic affairs. They did not con- 
tain only the all important statutes and ordinances for 
the guidance of their religious life, but in them was re- 
corded the division of the land among the tribes. They 
were not only a rule of faith, a canon of Scripture, but 
a code of national law. Therefore, it was as necessary 
for access to be had to these writings, as for land own- 
ers to have access to the registry of their title deeds for 
consultation. Further, we read that one of the laws 
concerning the duties of rulers, or kings, of Israel was, 
that he, when appointed, should write a copy of these in 
his own hand. Besides this, there were scribes whose 
special duty it was to make copies of these books of the 
law. It is also stated by Josephus that "By the direc- 
tion of Moses a copy of the law was prepared for each 
of the tribes of Israel." From this evidence we have a 
glimpse of the manner in which these books were re- 
ceived as authoritative, supplied for general use, and 
guarded with the greatest jealousy. And though there 
is no specific statement concerning the reception and care 
of the remaining books of the Old Testament, they were 
doubtless similarly canonized. It is apparent that they 
assumed a place of prominence or obscurity in the life 
of the nation, in proportion as it was faithful or un- 
faithful to God. Sometimes these writings were great- 
ly neglected, and during the wicked and idolatrous 
reigns of Manasseh and Amon the original writings had 
well nigh perished; it is generally believed that the au- 
tograph letters of Moses were then destroyed. But un- 
der the pious reign of Josiah, when the religious tone 



96 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

of the people was healthy, they were discovered by him 
among the rubbish of the temple. Judging from the 
Scriptural account given, it would seem Josiah was en- 
tirely ignorant of the existence of the book until he had 
discovered and read it. But though this neglect of 
these books frequently prevailed, it cannot be rationally 
believed that all in the nation were as the wicked royal- 
ists, nor can it be reasonably doubted that some private 
copies were possessed by pious men. 

The desire to know what became of these Old Testa- 
ment writings during the captivity of Judah as a na- 
tion, has often been expressed. And the only informa- 
tion available is that those deposited in the ark and the 
sacred vessels of the sanctuary were destroyed. How- 
ever, even this is not a sufficient reason for the belief, 
so general, that the lost Scriptures were restored by 
tradition or miracle. At least the best authorities 
agree in saying that the theory so courageously set forth 
that Ezra after the return from the captivity restored 
the lost Scriptures by the miraculous influence of the 
Divine Spirit is a fable, and never was in harmony with 
the facts, nor the faith of the church. There was no 
necessity for such a miracle, or for depending entirely on 
tradition for the replacement of the lost Scriptures. The 
books were not all lost. In the 9th chapter of the book of 
Daniel we are informed that he possessed a copy of these 
Scriptures. He quotes from them in several portions 
of his book, and makes express mention of the prophe- 
cies of Jeremiah. Moreover, all the Jews were not 
taken captive to Babylon. There was a remnant left 
with Jeremiah the prophet, and, for as long as he lived 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 97 

after the captivity, he was in regular communication 
with many of his captive brethren in Babylon. It was 
part of his duty to record the words spoken in these 
books, and from what is known of his faithfulness, 
Jeremiah was not likely to neglect this important work. 
Indeed, the more reasonable conclusion is, that he would 
in the peculiar circumstances in which the Israelites 
were placed, find special delight in making copies of 
the history, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, that 
they might be read in exile, and also found in use when 
the people returned to their native land. For Jeremiah 
was the prophet of the restoration and a strong believer 
in the future deliverance of the people. 

And if it were necessary to supply by tradition any 
missing portion of the Scriptures, and thus aid in their 
preservation there is no reason why it should not be 
considered reliable. It is almost notorious that there 
are many Scotchmen who can recite accurately the 
whole of Burns' poems. There are many old ladies 
among that favored race, any half dozen of whom could 
reproduce from memory the whole Bible. Indeed, I 
believe in this country Messrs. Moody and Torey, 
Drs. Brooks, Munhall, Chapman, Pierson and others 
who make a specialty of memorizing the Bible could 
from memory restore to us our Bible, if by any catas- 
trophe to-day the printed copies and manuscripts 
should be destroyed. And those eastern people were 
famous for the cultivation of memory, so that it 
should not be considered an incredible feat, though the 
pious amongst them had produced portions of their 
Scriptures by oral tradition. 



98 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

But Ezra also used in captivity at least a copy 
of the law of Moses. For we read in trie book of 
Ezra that after a partial return of the people under 
Cyrus and when the building of the second temple 
was completed, the functions of the priests and Le- 
vites were regulated "as it is written in the book of 
Moses." This was many years before Ezra himself 
returned to Jerusalem. And after the complete restor- 
ation of the people to their native land we again read 
in the book of Nehemiah that a great conclave was 
held. They gathered from all parts of their fatherland 
to meet on the hilltop of Jerusalem — so sacred to their 
race. 

Three=fourths of a century had passed and gone in a 
foreign land since the Jewish people had assembled 
together on that height. They had heard the songs of 
Zion in that strange land, they had seen the tears of their 
fathers flow in sorrow as they hung their harps on the 
willows, and pined away on the banks of the Babylonian 
rivers. Those now assembled had been captive children 
playing on a tyrant's soil. Their youthful aspirations 
had been stirred as they heard the stories of their God- 
given homes wrecked and ruined by cruel captors, from 
the lips of their bondaged ancestors. And their hearts 
became filled with hate for their foemen, their lives 
were inspired to nobler purposes and holier aims as 
their fathers and mothers read for them the sacred pre- 
cepts from the book of the God of their fathers. Now, 
when once more their feet tread their native soil, and 
their eyes behold its desolations, and their hearts thrill 
under the inspiration of its sacred memories they come 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 99 

together to worship the God of their fathers, on that 
sacred spot, to read the sacred books read by their 
fathers. Before the throng of 50,000 people Ezra the 
scribe ascended a pulpit erected in the street, and "he 
blessed the Lord the great God"; he also "read from 
the book of the law of Moses from morning till noon," 
and the influence of this service upon the multitude was 
so divinely uplifting, the whole scene was so enthus- 
ing that easterndike they leapt for joy, and rent the 
air with hallelujahs, and shouted amen ! and amen ! 
So there could be little necessity for producing the 
book by a dubious oral tradition, and none what- 
ever to have it restored by miracle. We are told 
by historians and other writers that there existed in 
Ezra's time a great synagogue of writers, or scribes, 
consisting of one hundred and twenty men, of which 
Daniel had formerly been a member, who assisted 
in preparing copies of the Scriptures for the various 
tribes of Israel. But in the words of Dr. Alex- 
ander, " it is very absurd to suppose that all these lived 
at one time and formed one synagogue, as they are 
pleased to represent it; for, from the time of Daniel to 
that of Simon the Just no less than two hundred and 
fifty years intervened." It is beyond question the syn- 
agogue existed for the purpose of multiplying copies of 
the Scriptures, and preserving them for the church and 
nation, but it is probable its members did not all live at 
the same time, but were successors of their predecessors, 
as in a church, trustees, and sometimes elders are suc- 
ceeded by others to maintain the work, Indeed the 
view so long accepted that Ezra completed the canon of 



100 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

the Old Testament cannot be easily sustained, and 
seems almost untenable. Nehemiah mentions in his 
book the names of great men in Persia who lived one 
hundred years after Ezra, The first book of Chronicles 
contains the genealogy of the sons of Zerubbabel, at 
least to the time of Alexander the Great. Therefore, 
this book could not have been placed in the canon by 
Ezra; nor could the books of Malachi and Esther, as 
these lived long after the time of that prophet. From 
all the facts that can be gathered on this point, the true 
conclusion seems to be that this synagogue was organ- 
ized in the time of Daniel — probably by Ezra — and the 
members arranged, collected, and made copies of the sa- 
cred books, and pious and learned men succeeded them, 
and maintained the organization until the whole canon 
of the Old Testament Scriptures was completed, about 
the time of Simon the Just, who was high priest about 
twenty-five years after the death of Alexander the 
Great. 

It seems the Old Testament Scriptures were divided 
into three volumes, and distributed in that form as the 
book of the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiography, 
meaning " the writings." The latter comprised the 
Psalms, Job, Ruth, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, 
Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles; 
and it is thus these books were received almost universal- 
ly as the canon of Scripture in the third century before 
Christ, and in this form the Savior recognized and 
spake of them. (Luke 24:44.) 

Readers of history who know the terrible sufferings 
of the Jews during those three centuries, may well won- 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 101 

der how these writings were preserved amid all the 
storms of national strife and tumults of war. I seek 
to emphasize the fact already stated that, "God never 
leaves himself without a witness." At the right time, 
and in the right place he is forthcoming. And in 
Ptolemy Philadelphia, the Syrian king who began to 
reign 280 years B. C, such a witness seems to have 
been found. He distinguished himself by his uniform 
kindness to the Jewish nation; ransomed many who 
had been sold as slaves, and invited many to settle in 
Egypt. He was also a liberal patron of literature and 
science, built a famous library in Alexandria, and 
caused a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures to be translated 
into Greek which was called the Septuagint. This be- 
neficent act multiplied the copies and disseminated a 
knowledge of the Scriptures, as this version had a wide 
circulation, was extensively read in a different tongue 
than the Hebrew, and secured for them a safety which 
the troublous times did not otherwise guarantee. Its 
value to the Jews was, however, greatly marred by the 
addition to it of some apocryphal writings, such as the 
books of Maccabees, and by Jewish prejudices against 
Grecian influences. It was, for these and other reasons, 
never sanctioned by the Jewish Sanhedrin — the chief 
council of that church — though it bridges the gulf of 
time between the last of the Jewish prophets — Malachi 
— and the advent of our Savior, and is therefore an im- 
portant witness of the canon of Scripture. 

Josephus, who lived in the time of our Lord, informs 
us that there were in his day " Twenty=two books, which 
by the Jews were believed to be divine." If it is con- 



102 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

sidered that at that time the two books of Kings were 
one book, also those of Samuel one, and those of the 
Chronicles one; Jeremiah and Lamentations were 
counted one, also Ezra and Nehemiah and the twelve 
minor prophets as one, thus with the book of Ruth added 
to Judges as was customary by the earlier Jews, we have 
the same books of the Old Testament Scriptures which 
then comprised the canon, and are now denominated 
the thirty=nine books of the Jewish Bible. 

Moreover, our Lord Himself and His apostles are 
witnesses of greatest import to this canon of the Old 
Testament. In Luke 24: 44 He speaks of them as } 
" The law, the prophets, and the psalms"; and in Mark 
14: 49 He refers to them as an infallible rule which 
must be fulfilled, and which cannot be broken. The 
apostle Paul when referring to the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament said, " All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God"; " these are able to make you wise unto salvation." 
Others of the apostolic band spake of them as, " The 
Oracles of God," "The Word of God," "The engrafted 
word which is able to save your souls." Some of the 
early fathers of the Christian church who had not been 
trained as Jews, and were unacquainted with the Jewish 
Scriptures made diligent inquiries concerning them, 
and found these things were so; and several catalogues 
of these same books were prepared not only by several 
individuals, but by councils of the Christian church 

The methods by which the New Testament was canon- 
ized are necessarily the same as those applied to the 
Old Testament books. As they were written and re- 
ceived by the people as the writings of the apostles, and 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 103 

evangelists, they became part of the canon of Scripture. 
Writers within the pale of the Roman Catholic com- 
munion assert with the authorities of that church that 
these Scriptures have no authority more than Esop's 
fables without the assent of that church. In other words, 
these books of themselves are not the rule of religious 
faith, unless made so by the vote of a church council. 
Hence the belief that the Bible is composed of books 
which suit the church's fancy, and were accordingly 
canonized by the church, has become general, with the 
deplorable result that the authority of Scripture has 
been weakened among many people. But a little reflec- 
tion would serve to show that no church can make error 
truth, or truth error, and has no special light or power 
by which it can determine what books shall be recog- 
nized as the Word of God. That Word has always re- 
vealed and declared itself as unmistakably as the light 
of the sun shows it is not darkness, or, as the fragrance 
of the flower cannot be mistaken for the odor of boiled 
roots. The church, however, ought to be able to decide 
what books have the marks of inspiration upon them, 
and this only is what the early Christian church and 
the Protestant church have done. Any book written 
by an apostle or evangelist, or known to have been 
accepted by the apostles and their followers as forming 
their rule of faith, was received as authoritative by the 
infant Christian churches. In endeavoring to discover 
whether they ought to have been so received the Pro- 
testant church has always applied the most rigid tests. 
Their style and contents have been tried by contempora- 
neous witnesses; by citations from and references to the 



104 THE BIBLE CANONIZED 

writings from early Christian and anti=Christian writers 
of the first three centuries, and the catalogue or lists of 
these sacred books made by them. And because those 
books were believed by the Christian church to 
endure these tests, they have been accepted as genuine 
through all the history of the Christian church, from the 
third century until now. It is true, this belief has not 
been held either unanimously or universally by the 
church; for there has nearly always existed a difference 
of opinion concerning the authority of some of the 
books. But even this difference only led to greater 
diligence and closer scrutiny, and to a more searching 
criticism of the text, until to=day the books comprising 
the canon of Scripture are more intelligently and con- 
fidently received by the Christian church than probably 
ever before. And one well known result of these care- 
ful methods has been the elimination from the number 
of the authoritative books of the Bible, the books of the 
Maccabees, Tobith, Judith, Wisdom, the epistles of 
Clement, of Barnabas, and of the Shepherd of Herman, 
known as the apocryphal writings. It should also be 
noted that the evidence for each book is not equally 
strong, but it is sufficiently formidable in the weakest, 
to lead the Christian world to accept it as the writing 
in which is found eternal life. 

If the reader will add the evidence given in former 
chapters of this volume concerning the authenticity and 
genuineness of the gospels and epistles, to the consid- 
erations of the methods by which the New Testament 
canon was formed, the conclusion that these were read 
in the Christian churches, and received as their rule of 



THE BIBLE CANONIZED 105 

faith, and thereby made part of the canon of Scripture 
becomes irresistible. 

Therefore, let our liveliest gratitude arise to the God 
of the Bible for the gift of this treasure, that we may 
rightly prize it above the price of rubies. "It is a 
perfect rule," straight as a line, clear as the light, more 
consoling to the troubled than human sympathy, and 
more loving than the human heart. And with what 
compassion should we pity those who neglect or reject 
it; for as it is placed on the truth, which is the firmest 
foundation for any book, and shines forth in its unbe- 
dimmed brightness amid the freshest and most lumi- 
nous light of this critical age, it is for all the rule of faith, 
the foundation of character, the inspiration of life, the dy- 
ing pillow on which mankind may peacefully repose, 
and the ladder upon which all may at last ascend into 
glory, out of this gloom. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BIBLE VERSUS ITS CRITICS. 

(a) Scientific critics. 
(6) Textual critics. 

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Paul. 

Daniel Webster, one of America's greatest statesmen, 
said on a memorable occasion, " I am not going to dis- 
cuss politicians, but principles." In this chapter I 
shall endeavor to follow his maxim and discuss not 
critics, but criticisms of the Bible. Every man has a 
right to his own opinion, for each one holds it at one's 
own peril. 

It is reasonable to believe that most of the adverse 
criticism of the Bible arises from misapprehension, 
prejudice, or human pride. One fruitful source of 
these is the manner in which the Bible is often consid- 
ered. For example, it is no uncommon occurrence for 
some critics to treat some of its poetic and apocalyptic 
passages as if they were narratives of history. Or they 
approach it with the preconceived idea that it was or- 
iginally written to teach science, and many frequently 
blame the original writers, whether Moses or John, for 
the mistakes of translators. Some also possess the no- 
tion that each reader of the Bible should be able to un- 
derstand and explain it fully, and of course they find the 
Scriptures do not harmonize with their opinions and 

106 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 107 

they in consequence reject the book. It would, how- 
ever, be just as reasonable for anyone to forever close 
one's eyes to the lustre of yonder sun, because the vari- 
ous theories of light do not harmonize with the alleged 
certainties of science, as it is to reject the Bible for any 
or all of such reasons. The Bible cannot reasonably 
be blamed, if the feeble understanding of man fails to 
fathom the sublimity of some portions of its revelation. 
It cannot justly be rejected if its teachings do not 
square with some views of natural science, a subject 
which it does not profess to teach; for, the Bible is a 
rule of religious, but not of scientific faith and practice. 
Poetry is not prose, nor are apocalyptic writings records 
of history whether contained in secular or sacred litera- 
ture; and to read and interpret them as such is to show 
either the reader's prejudice or ignorance. Any effort 
made to treat a book after such a fashion could result 
only in the distortion of its contents, and the confusion 
of the reader. A few illustrations will serve to show 
how these methods work when applied to the Bible. 
Take for example the much controverted words in Josh- 
ua 10: 13, "And the sun stood still, and the moon 
stayed." The view that the entire passage is a poetical 
quotation from the book of Jasher which was a book 
containing accounts of wars and war poems, or songs, is 
gradually growing into general acceptance by Christian 
scholars as eminent for their piety as for their scholar- 
ship. There is no necessity for doubting that a mira- 
cle was wrought for Joshua, but neither is there any for 
interpreting literally a poetic description of it. The 
Hebrew poets also wrote in Scripture, Ps. 114: 3-6; 



108 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

Judges 5:20, that "the hills and mountains skipped, and 
the waters fled, and the trees of the fields clapped their 
hands," and " the stars in their courses fought." But 
anyone who fails to brush aside the poetic mist sur- 
rounding these truths shall in interpreting them do 
great violence to the literature. To show an instance 
of such folly in secular literature a recent writer select- 
ed a poetic sentence from one of the speeches of a bla- 
tant infidel who criticised the Bible for its meaningless 
and extravagant utterances. In doing so he said, 
"Think of that wonderful chemistry by which bread 
was changed into the divine tragedy of Hamlet." The 
writer pointed out the poetic figure contained in the 
statement, and showed that were it treated as an histor- 
ic fact, we should have to believe the speaker meant 
that by the combination of certain chemical elements in 
the chemist's retort this marvellous production of Ham- 
let was created. But he himself would be the first to 
resent such an absurd interpretation of the infidel's own 
words. And all such attempts only pervert teaching 
whether that of the Bible, or of a secular book by read- 
ing into, and extracting from them what they cannot 
possibly mean. Unless the contents of a book are con- 
sidered fairly, they cannot possibly be understood clear- 
ly, or appreciated fully; therefore, it is not to be won- 
dered at when many of the critics reject the Bible. 

Another illustration may serve to show further how 
these misconceptions arise, and for which the writers of 
the Bible are blamed. The word "firmament" con- 
tained in the first chapter of Genesis is constantly put 
forth as a "mistake of Moses," and even some scien- 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 109 

tists(?) have quoted it as a proof of the disagreement 
between the Bible and science. Now, a mere smatter- 
ing of education is sufficient to teach us that the word 
is a Latinized word which does not adequately repre- 
sent the meaning of the Hebrew, and as I heard a 
speaker wittily say, "We are sure it is a word Moses 
never heard." It means " something solid," whereas 
the original word means " a vapory expanse." Then, 
there is the word rendered " whales " of which so much 
has been made as evidence of the blundering(?) man- 
ner of Moses, and of which even the late Prof. Huxley 
made fun. But the word in the original language in 
which the Bible was written means "great sea mon- 
sters," and exactly describes the monstrous creatures of 
the deep at the time referred to, and makes manifest to 
the unprejudiced reader that the translators, and not 
Moses, should be held responsible for such inaccuracies 
as may exist in these instances. Moreover, even its 
teachings concerning the creation when approached 
without preconceptions are found to be more in har- 
mony than in discord with the teachings of matured 
science on this important question. However, if the 
Bible narrative is read through the fog of prejudice 
arising from the morass of the belief that the Bible de- 
clares God made the world out of nothing in the space 
of six days of twenty-four hours, there shall probably 
exist in the reader's mind an irreconcilable difference 
between the records of Scripture and the facts of sci- 
ence. On the other hand, if we read Genesis believing 
the fallacy that science has decided that its undisputa- 
ble facts are opposed to the teachings of Genesis re- 



110 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

garding the creation of this world, we shall remain 
color-blind before their harmonies. 

The truth is the Bible does not say, "God created the 
world out of nothing, in the space of six days of twenty- 
four hours." The Bible does not mention "days" at all, 
but says that, " In the beginning God created the heav- 
en and the earth." Gen. 1: 1. As to the length of 
a "day" the Bible says, "one 'day' is with the Lord as 
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Ps. 
90: 4, 2nd Pet. 3: 8. Nor do many, and much less all, 
of the leading authorities in science say, "There is an 
irreconcilable difference between science and the Bible 
in their teachings of the world's creation," but quite 
the reverse. In the year 1887 over one hundred of the 
leading scientists in Britain and America prepared, 
signed, published, and circulated a declaration denying 
the statement previously made by some irresponsible 
sceptics that "There is an irreconcilable conflict be- 
tween matured science and the Bible." And with all re- 
spect to the learning of the laity these are the authori- 
ties who ought to know a little more about matured sci- 
ence if not also the Bible, than either a merchant 
versed in dry goods and groceries, or a lawyer learned 
in law, and dazzling with the exuberance of his elo- 
quence, or a theologian equipped in theology, and full 
of dry-as^dust technicalities. It will be a new birth for 
truth when Bible critics rightfully distinguish between 
a poor science spoken by a smatterer, and matured 
science taught by its unprejudiced and capable masters. 

With these considerations before us let us hear now 
the teachings of God's two greatest books — the Bible 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 111 

and nature — concerning some facts of the creation, as 
interpreted by the most capable human authorities. 

The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth." 

Geology tells us, its " history plainly reveals a begin- 
ning." It traces back the origin of the animals and 
plants through successive ages to their primitive and 
ancient state. It even assigns to their beginnings in 
history all the rocks of the earth's crust, and all the 
plains, and the mountains built up from them! There- 
fore, the criticism of science on this point accords with 
the record of Scripture. 

The Bible reads, "The earth was without form and 
void." That means a world entirely destitute of any 
order, life, growth, or beauty, as Sir Wm. Dawson de- 
scribes it, "a vaporous mass whirling in its rounds." 

Geology says, when the world was "in its formless 
state, there was the airy cloud mist, a watery mass, and 
a bright sphere around it. Then the congealing of a solid 
crust began, and the dropping of acid, and watery show- 
ers." Thus in the statement of these conditions "in the 
beginning," geology and the Bible agree. 

The Bible says, " Darkness was upon the face of the 
deep," and "God said, let there be light and there was 
light." 

Science says, "The voidless vaporous mass came into 
being — i. e., took form, or shape, — the mass condensed 
and a new brilliancy burst forth from the shiny cloud 
mist, and there was light, though not sunlight." Inger- 
sol has beautifully and profitably sung his falsehood 
soaked in sarcasm, of the grass growing, and the flowers 



112 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

blooming "without the sunlight," in order to make the 
creation story of the Bible ridiculous, and Goldwin 
Smith has prosaically repeated the fabrication. But 
science as quoted above reveals light as existing before 
the sun shone. The writer in the book of Genesis says, 
"Let the waters be gathered together into one place." 

And science says "There occurred vast sunken areas 
into which the waters subsided, and the earth's pent up 
fires belched forth ashes and molten rocks." So accord- 
ing to the Bible and science thus arose the first dry 
land, and as the poet sings, " The morning stars sang 
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." 

Indeed the only valid objection raised by science to 
the Scripture record of Creation is, that vegetable life 
appeared on the earth a whole period before animals. 
But even that objection has been greatly weakened, if 
not satisfactorily removed, to reasonable critics. For, 
while no ancient fossil of vegetation previous to animal 
life has been discovered, still, the geologist cannot safe- 
ly deny its prior existence. And Sir Wm. Logan, and 
other eminent geologists have made discoveries estab- 
lishing at least the probability on scientific grounds 
that land plants may have reached farther back than 
animal life, and on this point also science and Moses 
would seem to agree. 1 

In considering the Bible story of the origin of man in 
the face of the objections to it made by the modern 
wranglers, we would do well to note that the Bible does 
not elaborate the processes of creation. However, the 

1 See Dawson's Story of the Earth, Chapter I, and his introduction 
to Modern Science in Bible Lands, 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 113 

writer uses language sufficiently exact to show that God 
is the creator of the highest forms of life. He selects the 
word " create " to express the most original kind of cre- 
ation, so that, if the processes of creation were those of 
evolution, we have a God= evolved, and not a self^evolved 
world. He created the seed, out of which grew the 
fruit; He established the germ out of which evolved the 
universe, and these were the processes observed in man's 
creation. "In the beginning God created "; and when 
He brought man into being He " created." " God cre- 
ated man in his own image, in the image of God created 
he him." Gen. 1:27. But the writer uses the less em- 
pliatic word " made " when he speaks of the lower forms 
of animate life. It may be that the word " made " sug- 
gests the production of some forms of life as an easier 
process after creation began. However that may be, 
two things seem clear in the case of man as narrated in 
Scripture, viz.: the cause of his creation was a creative 
Will, and the mode of the development of man in the 
progress of the Creator's plan was through secondary 
agents or causes. For example, there are the dust of 
the ground, the atmosphere, the waters and all things in 
the land tributary to his development, and also natural 
laws in their operations; and it seems as if all are recog- 
nized as agents or means by this ancient writer in Gen- 
esis. And what has science to say on this matter? 
Even Darwin and the most godless evolutionists ac- 
knowledge that man is of the dust; so there is no con- 
troversy on that point. And as to the origin of man's 
spiritual and moral nature — his Godlikeness — the late 
Prof. Huxley in his " Critiques and Addresses," says, 



114 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

" The truth that life comes from life," or, as believers 
call it, " a creative will," " is victorious along the whole 
line." "Though," he adds rather significantly, "I wish 
it were all the other way." Therefore, he in substance 
unites, in this important matter of the origin of man, 
his voice with those of other eminent leaders in science, 
such as Agassiz, Carpenter, Beale, Guyot, Herschel, 
Lord Kelvin, Dawson, Dana, Logan, and a host of oth- 
ers, who say with Moses, " In the beginning God cre- 
ated life "; and, " God created man " in His own image. 
Might we not with profit repeat the question still un- 
answered, " How this ancient writer hit it so well in this 
simple statement of scientific principles if he were not 
inspired?" For myriads of the ablest men in the suc- 
ceeding centuries have been lost in hopeless confusion 
in attempting to explain or refute these facts. 

All Bible readers know the story of the flood and have 
heard something of the adverse criticism to which it has 
been subjected. Many are still somewhat disposed to 
believe that its waters have been dried up, and the narra- 
tive wiped out by the artillery of the critics. Some have 
said with more regard to childish humor than common 
sense that, " it must have rained many years to cause 
such a flood; and the waters must have been five miles 
deep in order to cover Mt. Ararat." But such criticism 
shows how fast and loose even a critic may play with 
Scripture. Once more should we remember this narra- 
tive contains more j)oetry than prose, and great care 
should be exercised in finding its true meaning. Ararat 
means a highland region, and not the solitary mountain 
peak 17,000 feet high, called by that name, as some 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 115 

have supposed, and it does not require any scholarship to 
permit the statement that a truer rendering than that 
given of the passage in Gen. 8:4 is, " The ark does rest 
... on the mountains of Ararat." Every circumstance 
of the narrative seems to indicate that the flood was local 
and not universal in its extent. In the 7th ch. and 20th 
verse we read that " Fifteen cubits high did the waters 
prevail." Any reader will admit there is a vast differ- 
ence between the " fifteen cubits " which measure 22J 
feet, and the " five miles " set forth in the outlandish 
guess of the critic. When the writer speaks of " the 
whole heavens," and, " all the high hills," he must have 
meant just what he saw of them, and not the highest 
tops of the Armenian range. Just as when in the book 
of Job we read of " the lightning flash over the whole 
heaven," we know it does not mean that the lightning 
made a circuit round the whole world, but that the flash 
was very vivid and great as far as it could be seen. As 
a consequence of the comparatively narrow limits of the 
flood the different species of beasts and birds to be 
taken into the ark would be less numerous than com- 
monly imagined by the distressed critic. As the narra- 
tive is thus interpreted the difficulty of having a series 
of miracles contained in a miraculous flood is entirely 
overcome, and the whole story appears real in the light: 
of " sweet reasonableness." We are now ready to listen 
to the description given by science of the story of the 
flood. 

Geology says, " Deposits reveal that all the countries 
between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, and 
between the great interior mountain chains of Europe, 



116 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

Africa, and Asia must have been submerged at that 
early period." And Sir William Dawson adds, "Were 
we bound to explain this submergence by natural 
causes these would not be hard to find," and many lead- 
ing geologists agree with him. So that even in this, 
science does not oppose the Bible. Moreover, when the 
details connected with the construction of the ark are 
carefully considered, the objections raised to the inade- 
quate ventilation and insufficient sanitation in the ark 
become manifestly more fanciful than formidable. The 
word translated ''window" in Gen. ch. 8: 4 is properly 
" hole," and is not the same as that translated " win- 
dow " in the 6th ch. and 16th verse. The one was a 
small aperture in the larger window which comprised 
the side of the ark, of which "holes" there were doubt- 
less many for sanitary purposes. And so we might con- 
tinue showing how the teachings of the best scientists, 
and those of Scripture, when fairly interpreted, do not, 
in any important material, contradict each other, though 
often their human interpreters make them appear to do 
so. 

The textual criticisms made upon the Bible, to a few 
only of which I shall refer, are of a different nature 
than those already referred to in the present chapter. 
Textual criticism in general deals with the originals of 
the sacred text, and is a science of the greatest value in 
obtaining a proper knowledge of the sacred Scriptures. 
It enables students of the Word of Grod to discover the 
very words and expressions which the inspired penmen 
wrote or dictated to their amanuenses. But, " all are 
not Israel who are of Israel"; and all are not textual 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 117 

critics who profess to be. It is a common occurrence in 
this age for men who are wholly unqualified for such 
work either by disposition or attainments to don the 
critic's armor and rush at the Scriptures with the sole 
aim of eliminating the supernatural from the Bible. 
These are known by their application to the text of the 
Bible of tests not in harmony with the well known rules 
of literary criticism, by ignoring legitimate external ev- 
idence, and by forming conclusions after a partial ex- 
amination of the record. They too have frequently 
blamed the original writers for the errors of translators, 
and have discussed the poetic in Scripture expressed in 
metaphor as if it were sober prose, thereby confusing 
the meaning, and application of the truth, making the 
true appear false, and the spiritual and eternal seem 
only the human and temporary. It is unfortunate that the 
term "higher criticism" has of late years been given to 
textual criticism; for it is applied to all criticism wheth- 
er helpful or injurious. Much invaluable work has 
been accomplished by legitimate criticism in the way of 
making clear obscure passages of Scripture, improving 
defective translations, and correcting views formed 
from misinterpreted, and interpolated texts. Therefore, 
a strong line should be drawn between the several 
classes of critics. The destructive critics inform us 
with a candor worthy to adorn truth, that "fresh dis- 
coveries of this age have outgrown the belief in the in- 
spiration of the Bible." Now what are these "fresh 
discoveries " ? Some of them are six hundred years 
old. Eben Ezra, a Jew in the 12th century, raised 
some of these objections put forth as " fresh discover- 



118 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

ies." Carlstadt, a contemporary of Luther, followed in 
his line. Hobbs, the English sceptic in the 17th cen- 
tury, became famous by propagating these "fresh dis- 
coveries." One hundred and fifty years ago Jean As- 
true, a Frenchman and Roman Catholic, formulated a 
theory out of what " fresh discoveries" others had made, 
known as the " Documentary hypothesis." And over a 
hundred years ago Benedict De Spinoza openly denied 
the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. These are 
some of the " fresh discoveries " which German, Brit- 
ish, and American destructive Biblical critics have been 
improving(?) upon and restating to a reading public; 
though, we are told they came through the fresh light 
recently thrown on Biblical research. This is where 
Ingersol discovered many of his " Mistakes of Moses"; 
though he assures the world they were revealed to him 
by "the light of this age." Indeed, leading reviews 
are still paying high prices for a rehash of these " fresh 
discoveries" against the Bible to some destructive crit- 
ics who are wholly unqualified by either habit of life or 
temper for the work of textual criticism. Even such a 
writer as Goldwin Smith only last January served up 
this stale stuff for the American palate in the North 
American Review. The fact that Ingersol had uttered 
the same to comic crowds in the West ten years ago, and 
that others had published it sixty years before, and 
others taught it as " fresh discoveries " centuries ago, did 
not seem to make much difference even to the learned 
ex-professor. 

The account of the creation of man as given in the 
2nd chapter of Genesis is one of the portions of Scrip- 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 119 

ture against which those critics have directed their fire. 
They allege it contradicts the story of man's creation as 
set forth in the first chapter. Whereas, it seems evident 
that the difference is largely confined to the narration of 
all the facts. In the first chapter we read, " God crea- 
ted man in his own image : in the image of God created 
he him," and in the second we learn, " The Lord God 
formed man of the dnst of the ground, and he 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man be- 
came a living soul." It would seem very difficult to 
find any contradiction in these two statements; though 
the second appears to be supplementary to the first. 
In this way the two narratives contain a complete ac- 
count of man's origin, as also whence he came, and the 
means used in his formation. " God created " him, 
"God formed him from the dust," and "God breathed 
upon him." Is it not a scientific fact that man's body 
is composed of so many chemical elements, all of which 
may be found in the red earth, which the Scriptures 
call " dust " ? Is it not also indisputable that there is 
more in the constitution of any man than mud? And 
believers of all classes and creeds call that "more" the 
germ of man's moral might and spiritual grandeur — a 
reflection of the image of God. 

Another ancient foe dressed up in modern garb by 
the destructive critics of the Bible is a statement con- 
cerning the enormous growth necessary among the Isra- 
elites in Egypt in order to give them the 600,000 fight- 
ing men claimed for them at that time by Scripture. 
Indeed, they add, "this growth as mentioned in Exodus 
is simply impossible." It happens however, that the 



120 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

Bible itself says, " they sojourned in Egypt four hun- 
dred and thirty years"; though these critics insist that 
it says " two hundred and fifteen years." Bearing in 
mind the true time as specified by Scripture the diffi- 
culty almost entirely vanishes, especially in the face of 
the fact that the servants with their families who went 
down to Egypt with Jacob became part of their tribes, 
and the male portion of them were numbered as part of 
the army. A fierce critic once said in his wrath, " God 
hates a critic the worst of all authors." But if it is the 
style of such to first make a parrot of Scripture, and 
then use his own words to falsify sacred truth, both 
God and man should repudiate him. 

Other statements of the Bible such as Baalam's ass 
speaking, Jonah and the whale, the raising of Lazarus, 
are disposed of as erroneous with one stroke of the pen 
simply because they set forth the miraculous. It is 
true the miraculous is abundantly revealed in the 
Scriptures, and it is the prerogative of anyone to dis- 
miss it with either a sneer or a denial. It would, how- 
ever, only seem reasonable for such to first settle the 
prior question, "Does the supernatural exist anywhere?" 
The supernatural is the miraculous, or only that which 
is above nature, and need not be against it. It may in- 
terfere temporarily with the ordinary operation of nat- 
ural law, or it may prove to be only a work of that law 
beyond human knowledge. However, if it is the super- 
natural it may be either above, or beyond, or opposed to 
natural, but it must be entirely independent of it. 

Darwin in his "Origin of Species," p. 422, admits the 
supernatural in creation as related in the Bible. He 



SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 121 

says, " It is as noble a conception of the Deity to be- 
lieve He created a few original forms with capabilities 
of development into other and needful forms, as to be- 
lieve the different species were the results of fresh crea- 
ted orders." The creation of those "few created forms" 
we call the miraculous, or supernatural. 

Tyndall admitted the existence of a chasm in this 
world between physical facts and human consciousness 
which is " intellectually impassable." That chasm is be- 
yond reason, though there is no evidence it is against it, 
and we believers call it the supernatural, the miraculous. 

Huxley said, " I decline to admit that I am only the 
cunningest of nature's clocks"; meaning thereby that he 
was something more than a piece of machinery which 
can be put up by hand and explained by human intelli- 
gence. And that inexplicable part in him, that myster- 
ious thing in every life which is so much beyond, above, 
and independent of the natural, and indeed may some- 
times operate against it, we call the supernatural, the 
miraculous. 

Once admit this, as even these eminent scientific ag- 
nostics did, and this universe becomes a demonstrated 
miracle. And that miracle Worker who was the em- 
bodiment of the supernatural on earth, might surely 
call back to life the centurion's daughter, or the dead 
Lazarus; feed the hungry thousands in the wilderness, 
or on the barren Judean hills; make an ass speak, or 
preserve Jonah in the whale if needful so to do; give 
Himself in love unto death for sinful man, and rise vic- 
torious from a sin^cursed grave for a lost world. And 
neither arts nor ingenuities can accomplish the over- 



122 SCIENTIFIC AND TEXTUAL CRITICS 

throw of the logic of these facts; and the sneers and 
jeers of infidelity shall continue to prove powerless 
against the faith in them. 

About the only "fresh discovery" set forth in Gold- 
win Smith's article is that " the Bible does not put for- 
ward any claim to inspiration." A story is told of a 
spiritualist in a seance who revealed a strange old lady 
to a country youth with the brief introduction, "Sir, 
this is your mother." The young man had left his 
mother home alive and well, and was struck almost 
dumb with astonishment. After a brief pause he re- 
plied rather crestfallen, "Well that is a poser." When 
first I read the statement that " the Bible in its text 
made no claim to inspiration," I could only say in the 
words of the young man to the spiritualist " Well that 
is a poser from Goldwin Smith." It must surely be of 
interest to know that this Bible makes direct claims 
to inspiration no fewer than two hundred times by say- 
ing, "thus saith the Lord," or, " the Lord spake." Our 
truth=speaking Lord Jesus constantly treated them as 
inspired, and the apostles also set forth this exceptional 
claim and character for them. Indeed, one of them in 
the epistle to the Hebrews states, "God had set His 
own stamp upon the book, and owned it as His, by 
'swearing with His own oath — and He can swear by 
no greater' — that 'His promises' in this Word, 'shall 
come to pass.' " 

Which are truth seekers to believe — those Scriptures 
which speak for themselves, or critics whose principal 
aim seems the destruction of the truth, by weapons of 
fancy, folly, and falsehood? 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BIBLE VERSUS ITS CRITICS (Continued.) 
(a) The critics of its moral teachings. 
(6) The critics of its social teachings. 

" Hath the rain a father "f Job. 

There are many difficulties connected with the teach- 
ings of Scripture; and yet one is tempted to wonder 
why their existence should occasion any surprise. Many 
of the facts revealed in nature— that other book of God 
— are not fully understood by any, and not even gen- 
erally known to the few, but little surprise is manifested, 
and no one discards the lessons of science which is 
nature's great interpreter, because of that. If we stop 
to think how little exact knowledge exists concerning 
light, life, and law, which are the three principal forces 
in nature; or how much less is clearly understood of 
the relation of their constituent elements to each other, 
or of the relation of the several laws to each and all; 
we shall conclude that it is somewhat unreasonable to 
charge the Bible with all mystery, and very inconsistent 
to reject it, and believe in nature. Intellectual difficul- 
ties! yes, all nature is surcharged with them. But we 
do not ask, Why is this universe not made so that all 
can easily comprehend it in its mysterious composition 
and various and intricate relationships? and then doubt 
its reality or existence. 

123 



124 CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 

It is well we should be mindful of man's privilege as 
an intelligent being who gains knowledge only by obser- 
vation and the application of his faculties, and that the 
royal prize of his mental activities is not merely a 
knowledge of existing facts, but the culture of the man. 
It thus becomes apparently reasonable that intellectual 
difficulties whether in the Bible or in nature may be an 
indispensable means to man's own greatness. Moral 
difficulties in God's Word may have the same effect on 
character that intellectual ones have on the cultivation 
of the mind. We certainly cannot overcome by study 
the unrevealed moral purposes of God, any more than 
we can understand the undefined motives of man; but 
we can be humble, prayerful and patient before them, 
and thereby secure improvement in character. 

But what is meant by moral difficulties in the teach- 
ings of Scripture? Usually the meaning given is very 
broad, but we seek in this chapter to confine ourselves 
to a few of those representative instances in Scripture 
in which God's dealings with His people, the revela- 
tions of His character, and the judgment of an enlight- 
ened Christian conscience appear to enter into conflict. 
An infidel mountebank playing at so much per head 
opens the Bible in the presence of his audience and 
reads certain sentences, and then dramatically closes the 
book with the supercilious remark, " I cannot proceed 
further lest I should shock the decency of the people by 
reading more," and the licentious ones present applaud 
him, and consider him a moral paragon. A Christian 
conscience strives after education even up to the high- 
est standards of justice, mercy and truth; and must treat 



CBITWS OF ITS MORALITY 125 

even apparently distorted truth by these standards. 
And the difference between the attitudes to truth of 
these two classes accounts largely for the flippant 
profanity of the one, and the reverent diligence of the 
other in considering this question. There are a few 
instances recorded of immoral doings contained in 
Scripture, such as the imprecations of many of the 
prophets, and in some of the Psalms; the burning of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction of the ene- 
mies of Israel by the divine command. But they only 
exhibit the sinful personal experiences of some of those 
who lived in those days, the severe discipline necessary 
to maintain morality, and reveal to us the human side 
of divine revelation. The lesson taught by those in- 
stances is not " that we may do likewise," but rather 
" let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
fall." For example, there are books in medical science 
which treat of " obstetrics," but they are for the purpose 
of giving information concerning the better treatment 
of specific diseases. No one would read them to a pro- 
miscuous audience, nor would any charge them with 
" teaching immorality," and class them with immoral 
books, for they are written for the welfare of the human 
race. And in like manner the Bible relates the moral 
diseases of humanity, with which some of its writers 
were afflicted in a marked degree, and the manner in 
which sin was often punished in those days, that the 
coming ages might learn how to flee from, fight against 
and remove them, as they are immeasurably more terri- 
ble than either physical or mental disorders. Even the 
severe punishments of God inflicted by His commands 



126 CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 

on some people and nations should be read in the light 
of the barbarous conditions in which they lived, and the 
daily commission by them of the most outrageous crimes. 
The innocent sometimes suffered with the guilty, but 
the saving of a purer seed, and the elevation of the na- 
tion in the future was the holy purpose which ever 
prompted such regrettable actions. Indeed, though the 
critic to-day stands on his pinnacle of a loftier moral 
superiority, and sneers with repugnance against the 
barbarities of Old Testament times, the highest in- 
terests of the human race demanded that the atro- 
cious idolatry of these heathen nations be rooted out 
somewhere. Had the Israelites not accomplished it, 
they would have extinguished the Israelites; and where 
would the superior moral plane of our age have been to= 
day? It is easy for us to look at these things through 
the reforms, the literature, and moral and spiritual forces 
which have come and gone since then, and forget that 
theirs was the heavy task of laying moral foundations. 
But take as an illustration of the eastern ferocity which 
those had to overthrow, the modern Turk; and add to 
that the revolting rites of Canaanitish paganism, and we 
have, on a small scale, a sample of the character of the 
nations these Israelites had to contend against. Who 
doubts that if Turkey had her will the Armenians would 
be exterminated? Where is the man with any clearly 
denned sense of the right, and true, and pure who would 
not rejoice if some power impelled by a divine sense of 
the sacredness of justice and mercy should arise and 
slaughter the atrocious Turks wholesale. History re- 
veals that those Turkish atrocities have been repeated 



CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 127 

for several generations, and there is no reasonable doubt 
they will be continued so long as Turkey is a nation, 
and Mohammed is their prophet. The use of the exterm- 
inating sword is therefore greatly, if not entirely, Justi- 
fied as we meditate upon these considerations, for in 
such desperate cases fire requires to be fought with fire. 
Moreover, the Israelites themselves required these se- 
vere lessons. It was of paramount importance they 
should be taught that contagion with idolatry brings 
physical corruption, and moral and national decay. In- 
deed, idolatry had several times so engrafted itself upon 
the body politic that those Jewish people who associ- 
ated with it were threatened with death. " Defile not 
yourselves in any of these things," said the Lord to 
those people. " For, in all these the nations are 
defiled which I cast out before you, and the land is 
defiled; therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, 
and the land vomiteth out her inhabitants. For who- 
soever shall do any of these abominations even the souls 
that do the in shall be cut off from among their people." 
" I am Jehovah your God." The nation, Israel, had a 
moral character, and was weighted with responsi- 
bility to its God, just as truly as an individual, and its 
prophets and leaders required to become ministers of 
justice as well as teachers and rulers of the people, in 
order that integrity might be preserved. In brief, what 
was done in most cases was to save the nation's char- 
acter by severely and sometimes cruelly punishing its 
enemies. Even in those rude days the motto was — 
though rigidly and roughly practiced — " Better the 
whole nation perish than that right, and truth, and God 



128 CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 

should be dethroned." And when the monstrosities 
were exterminated, these Israelites became a purer and 
better stock; just as life is sometimes saved by the 
amputation of a limb. 

We live in a different age now, and shame on us if 
we do not reveal a different spirit and practice milder 
reformatory methods. But are not the barbarities and 
ferocity of modern wars revolting? Do they in some 
features differ so very much from those our Biblical 
critics condemn? And every day we meet with those 
who cannot be mellowed by a sympathetic tear, or re- 
strained from evil by quantities of the milk of human 
kindness, or drawn to righteousness and purity by the 
cords of love. And the rod, the penitentiary, the 
halter, or the electric chair are substituted for the 
cruder methods adopted by our Hebrew forefathers, 
to save modern society and the nation from such people. 
So that the judgments of God are still abroad in the 
land, though the methods are altered by civilization, 
and are adapted to our present age. 

But it is often argued that the conceptions revealed 
in the worship of its people are immoral, and the hu- 
man sacrifices in the Old Testament are cited to 
prove the contention. We shall consider the case of 
Isaac offered as a sacrifice by his father, Abraham, as 
sufficient for all similar instances in Scripture. Jeph- 
thah's sacrifice of his daughter needs not to be de- 
fended; because it is doubtful whether it consisted of 
anything more than her celibacy. 

It has been earnestly urged that it would be a crime 
for a father to slay his innocent son as a sacrifice, and 



CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 129 

to question this is to attempt to shake the foundations 
of morality. But there does not seem any such desire 
on the part of Abraham the father of God's faithful. 
Every step he took in that awful journey seems as if 
taken on leaden feet, and only under the impelling and 
painful sense of duty. He had no Bible declaring to 
him the revealed will of God; but as his conscience 
spoke to him, he believed he heard "the Voice" which 
had been the guide of his life, and which had never 
misled him. As is not infrequent in Scripture, the 
meaning of the whole narrative is greatly obscured by 
the rendering of the word " tempt." The word means 
to try, prove, test. The revisers therefore rightly tran- 
slated the verse, "God did prove Abraham." He pur- 
sued his course even to the verge of the awful; though 
evidently not without faith that He in whom he be- 
lieved would "provide a ram for the sacrifice." This 
provision God made in ample time to deliver His faith- 
ful servant. The charge of the critics that Jehovah 
ordered human sacrifices to be made to Him becomes 
groundless, for God overruled the mistake of Abraham, 
by using it as a proof of his faith and obedience, and 
the trusty patriarch stood the test, the Lord provided a 
sacrifice, and Abraham has come down through the ages 
enriching and beautifying them with the moral splendor 
of his character, and the triumphs of his submission; 
and he stands to-day easily the first on the list of the 
heroes of faith. Indeed, instead of this instance en- 
couraging the revolting practice of human sacrifice it 
surely discourages it by rendering such wholly unnec- 
essary, and revealing God's antipathy to it. The Lord 



130 CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 

provided the ram, and showed that animal and not hu- 
man sacrifice was commendable; and He revealed that 
when the human life is offered up to Him He redeems, 
but does not slay it. Nor did God require to prove 
Abraham that he might learn what was in Him, or to 
know the extent of his willingness to suffer for Him; 
but that Abraham's faith might be perfected, and many 
seeing and hearing of it should believe on His name. 
The mightiest faith is the fruit of the greatest trial; and 
there is nothing so enthusing and uplifting as illustri- 
ous example. And the spiritual pathway of human life 
has been to myriads illumined as by a noontide sun 
by Abraham's submissive trust. 

As to the law of sacrifice, we should learn that its or- 
iginal purpose was to teach those primitive Israelites true 
ideas of justice, mercy, and love; and the way of moral 
transformation by self=denial through vicarious sacri- 
fice or suffering. At first it was revealed in the form of 
a fine imposed upon the guilty which led to penitence 
and self-restraint. It taught them that God hated sin, 
and that He would in nowise excuse, though He would 
for a time tolerate the guilty; and that knowledge grad- 
ually improved their life. It is true these were types 
of the great ante4ype Christ Jesus who made atone- 
ment for the world's sin, and which reveals human life 
redeemed through sacrifice and repentance, and the 
higher life secured both in nature and in grace though 
it is doubtful whether those people understood this un- 
derlying truth. In all these the world has had visible 
and tangible tokens of the terrible consequences of sin, 
the value of a pure life, and the all=redeeming mercy of 



CRITICS OF ITS MORALITY 131 

their God: but in no line in Scripture is there taught 
human sacrifice for selfish or personal purposes. 

Another instance adduced to show the immoral concep- 
tion of Old Testament religion is that " David is called 
a man after God's own heart," while in fact he is shown 
to have been a very depraved character. The critics 
should remember that the prophet spake the words 
concerning David when a youth. Saul's career had been 
a tragic failure simply on account of his sin. David 
when chosen king was distinguished for virtue and 
valor in the highest degree, though even then he was 
not a faultless human model. But his youthful char- 
acter possessing so many notable qualities such as 
God delights to see, when compared with the morally 
dwarfish and warped characters of that age, surely justi- 
fied the saintly eulogium passed by the judge. It is al- 
most unnecessary to mention that he afterwards grew 
giddy on the heights of prosperity's luxury, and fell 
into the grossest sins, which show that for a time at 
least the devil of lust controlled him. But where can 
be found repentance which in quality and quantity ex- 
cels his? No man was ever more severe in passing sen- 
tence upon himself, as may be easily believed by read- 
ing the fifty=first Psalm. As we read that record of his 
deep self=abasement and confession; his earnest prayer 
for pardon, and purity; we need not fear to once more 
apply to him the words which honor his youthful years, 
"A man after God's own heart." For as Carlyle said, 
"The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none, 
and of all acts, is not repentance for any man the most 
divine?" 



132 CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 

We come now to notice very briefly some criticisms 
upon the sociology, or the social relations and social 
ethics set forth in the Bible. 

It is charged that the Bible teaches polygamy and 
slavery, the inequality of humanity, and the disability 
of the female sex. And the conclusion drawn is, it is 
the foe of social purity, liberty, and equality. While it 
is true these evils existed, and were for a long time 
practiced among the Hebrews, yet it is grossly false to 
say that polygamy was ever taught in the Hebrew 
Scriptures. Our Savior Jesus informs us that "it was 
permitted because of the hardness of their hearts," so that 
it existed on sufferance because of the low moral condi- 
tion of the people. The Edenic idea of marriage set 
forth in the book of Genesis is the divine one which 
runs through all Scripture, viz., "The twain shall be 
one flesh, a man shall leave his father and mother and 
cleave unto his wife." It would be as reasonable for the 
coming generations to say that the Christian religion 
teaches the ideas on divorce now prevailing in some 
nominally Christian nations, who, in practice, are anti- 
Christian on this all-important question. Nor are the 
criticisms on this subject always adorned with the jew- 
el of consistency, for in the same breath the critics 
blame the Bible for teaching polygamy, and also inform 
us these people sprang from brutes and nothing better 
should be expected from them. Fortunately for the hu- 
man race, as also for the pure and undenled religion of 
the Bible, the truth is contained in neither. The He- 
brews fell into the immoral social habits of the heathen 
nations around them, and until they were educated and 



CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 133 

uplifted into the pure ideals of marriage and domestic 
life originally taught in Scripture, they practiced them. 
However, the idea of marriage between one man and one 
woman being a sacred union of two hearts and two lives 
in love, until either adultery or death separate them, 
was first set forth in the Bible, and has been evolved 
and gradually enforced by its teachers as it was practi- 
cable so to do, until it regained its original position be- 
fore the advent of Jesus Christ. 

It is also alleged that the Bible accords to 
woman an inferior position in the home and in soci- 
ety. One critic has often stated, "There is not one 
word in the Bible about woman excepting words of 
shame and humiliation." Of course, in his relentless 
zeal to make a point against religion he overlooked the 
trifling references of titular dignity, prominent position, 
and opportunity for the exercise of exceptional ability 
made to Miriam the prophetess; to Deborah the ruler; 
to Naomi the patriot; to Ruth the faithful; to Esther, 
the ancient Joan of Arc; to the Shunamite protectress; 
to Hannah the mother of Samuel; and to Elizabeth and 
Mary, and a host of others from mother Eve to Priscilla, 
who were the heroines of those eastern people, the un- 
surpassed saviors and benefactors of their nation and 
church, around whose memories there shines a sacred 
halo of honor, love, and glory unbedimmed. 

Much has also been made of the apostle's statement 
that, " Wives should submit themselves unto their hus- 
bands as unto the Lord for it is right." But no word 
is uttered concerning his similar regulation to husbands 
in which he advises " husbands" to "love their wives as 



134: CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 

Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." 
Surely here is enjoined a love which courts submission, 
and renders obedience easy; a love which recognizes the 
truest equality, and makes sacrifice for each other de- 
lightful; the love which is the bond recognized by 
Scripture, as that which alone constitutes true marriage 
which heaven registers and makes its own. Nor is 
Paul's injunction that " women should remain silent in 
the churches," any proof of the humiliation or disabil- 
ity of the female sex. The rules of Scriptural exegesis 
require no more than a local application of the passage 
containing the prohibition, and it may mean no more 
than that some of these Corinthian women were to ob- 
serve silence and meditation in the future, as a punish- 
ment for some former unseemly or unprofitable utter- 
ances, which were not unknown in the church in those 
days. 

Even though slavery was universal in the ancient 
world, the Mosaic religion showed its superiority over 
others, by revealing the right of every man to personal 
freedom, and by attempts at least to regulate the evil. 
The ceremonial laws contained many ameliorations 
which had to be observed by the slaveholder on pain of 
punishment. " Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant 
that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren 
or of the strangers in the land." 

In the New Testament Scriptures the basis of liberty, 
fraternity, and equality of race and opportunity is laid 
in these words, " God hath made of one blood all na- 
tions." " God hath concluded all in unbelief that he 
might have mercy upon all." And Christ said, " He 



CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 135 

that doeth the will of my Father the same is my mother, 
sister and brother." Moreover, when Paul says, " Serv- 
ants obey your masters in singleness of heart as unto 
Christ," he also says, "Masters do the same things unto 
them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your mas- 
ter is in heaven, neither is there any respect of persons 
with him." It is thus he shows all relationships of life 
are equalized in right doing, all liberty is limited by 
the rights of others; otherwise they become, no matter 
what position on life's stage the actors occupy, cruel 
tyranny and intoxicated license. The God of this Bi- 
ble teaches that all are equal before Him, and all free who 
live for Him, and shall at last be valued by Him accord- 
ing to their relation to the eternal principles of justice and 
mercy, though in all ages man has perverted God's 
ways, distorted His Word, and prostituted His purposes. 
Like the old lady who on one occasion looked into her 
mirror, and beholding several wrinkles on her face, for- 
merly unseen by her, threw her hair brush and smashed 
the glass saying, "That old mirror makes me look aw- 
ful." So many see in God's Word their moral deformi- 
ties reflected, and as they behold them, cast the book 
from them as untrue. But the lady's wrinkles were not 
removed by her rash act, nor are sinful features elimina- 
ted from character and the world redeemed by rejecting 
God's Word, notwithstanding the many difficulties sug- 
gested by its contents. If it be read with an apprecia- 
tive mind, and often upon our knees, instead of hero- 
wise, and warrior4ike, with souls proud and minds arro- 
gant; if one strives to put one's self in the writer's 
place; to distinguish the human history recorded in it 



136 CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 

from the divine revelation which it contains; to inter- 
pret the Old Testament in the light of the New, for the 
principles of the sermon on the Mount were established 
by Moses though developed by our Lord Jesus Christ; 
one shall find in it the language of God to the human 
soul that can guide it upward to Himself, transform it 
into the likeness of Himself, make the Bible the book 
of books upon which the human race may lean for sal- 
vation, and in whose undying moral and religious prin- 
ciples it shall find immortality, eternal life. 

The one thing in life which God's children need never 
fear is, that His Word shall be overthrown, for Jesus 
said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word 
shall not pass away." 

"All flesh is as grass, 
And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. 
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; 
But the word of the Lord abideth forever." 

As the seas have for ages swept over the rocky head- 
land, and left it only whiter and nobler, frowning grimly 
at such misspent energy; so, this Bible has been at- 
tacked for centuries by the learning of critics, swept by 
the philosopy of sceptics, and lashed by the fury of infi- 
dels, but it still remains the Rock of eternal truth, the 
very Word of the living God more brightly prominent, 
and more clearly seen, while ever and anon its foes sink 
back into their own dark and damning depths.. 

As the birds carry seeds and unconsciously implant 
them, which in after years become forests of beautiful 
shrubbery, and giant trees producing and protecting 
growth and life; so the seeds of divine truth in the Bible 



CRITICS OF ITS SOCIOLOGY 137 

are being implanted everywhere, and their fruits are 
growing wide as the universe, endless as eternity, and 
" for the healing of the nations." So let believers " fear 
not, faint not, falter not." " The word of the Lord 
standeth sure." 



CHAPTER X. 

WHAT IS THE BIBLE TO US. 

" Thy testimonies are wonderful" David. 

" The engrafted word which is able to save your soul." James. 

In discussing this question it is not my purpose to 
set forth any particular theory of inspiration, but to ad- 
vance some of the principal claims of the Bible as a 
divinely inspired book, and leave the responsibility of 
deciding with my hearers. 

I desire, however, to define the doctrine of inspiration 
in which we believe. 

Inspiration is that divine assistance necessary to reveal 
spiritual things of which the writers of Scripture were 
ignorant; to stimulate them in recalling facts essential 
to be remembered of what they had learned; and to 
guide them in imparting to others the knowledge of 
these truths which they possessed. Thus they were 
enabled to write accurately, and speak truly, these divine 
and human truths contained in the Bible. 

Inspiration is principally revealed by the divine truth 
it reveals to others, the true it creates in others, and the 
inspiration it gives to others. Therefore in determin- 
ing what is this book to me? I do so by finding out 
whether its literature, its art, its morality, and its relig- 
ion tower above all other religions, morals, art, and 
literature, and inspire me with the divine afflatus which 

138 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 139 

can bring forth in me the image of the divine man 
Christ Jesus. 

First. What is its literature? All literature is both 
the creator and creature of circumstances. But its great- 
ness is determined by what it receives from, and does 
for, the period which produced it, and for the unborn 
future. Whether poetry or prose, literature is judged 
by this canon. Carlyle's " Frederick the Great " made 
him famous because of the new creations which he pro- 
duced from the circumstances which surrounded the 
life of the great German Monarch. Tennyson's "In 
Memoriam " shall live in the future ages for the beauti- 
ful monuments in it he raised to the sacred memories of 
the past, out of an incident so common. Bunyan's 
" Pilgrim's Progress " shall control hearts for the vivid 
pictures it portrays out of the blood and struggle of a 
universal Christian experience. Shakespeare and 
Burns shall continue to be sung and acted, whatever 
preachers may say, because of their creations of charac- 
ters sublime, from circumstances so ordinary. It is 
true something depends upon the style of diction, as to 
the value of literature. But the lasting element in it is 
the creative thought; and the genius or the inspiration 
is seen in the greatness of the creation, and the inferi- 
ority of the circumstances from which it sprung. Now, 
it is not an uncommon occurrence to hear men — and 
especially young men — who, if they have read it, cannot 
have thought much about it, say: "The Bible is not 
ranked as a literary book by the thinkers of this age." 
It is said Ingersoll claims to be the only infidel who 
has read the Bible through; and it would appear from 



140 WHAT IS THE BIBLE ? 

this estimate of its literature by many that his state- 
ment is true. I would, therefore, suggest that those 
who undervalue its literature read it carefully, for a little 
thought will reveal the folly of such a judgment. Its 
creations produced — mark you — not in this nineteenth 
century, but in nature's primal morn, eclipse the 
sublimest thought of successive ages. 

Take for example the history of creation, brief, rug- 
ged, and poetic, in the first chapter of Genesis. Here 
in a few sentences is a living drama whose interest is 
ever deepening, and extending with the expanding 
thought of the centuries. 

"In the beginning God made the heaven and the 
earth." " Let there be light and there was light." " He 
made the stars also." So real and so lifelike are these 
words that the formless deep has been felt since, and 
the surging of the broodings of the Spirit has been heard 
rolling since. Whether the narrative is science or not 
is not our question at present, But it seems set- 
tled, that the contrasts of creative thought (out of 
such barren circumstances) which swell not only 
through this sacred page, but through the world of 
thought to=day shall live and grow, illumine and fill the 
minds of men, when the scientific treatises of Humbolt, 
and Darwin, and Huxley as such, shall forever be for- 
gotten. A famous infidel once said this account de- 
scribed astronomy in these five words, " He made the 
stars also." Now that is an unpardonable mistake for a 
thinker to make, who has been so well paid for showing- 
supposed mistakes of others. Moses did. not try to de- 
scribe astronomy in these words. But he suggested the 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 141 

starry heavens to observant man, and the creative 
thought contained in these five words has set astrono- 
mers to systematize the heavens, and to reveal to man 
the grandeur, the greatness and the glory of the world of 
stars. And when anyone, whether infidel or believer, 
by five burning words can create such an offspring of 
genius, and reveal such vistas of thought as this writer 
has done it will be worth more than five dollars a night 
to hear him. 

Take also the story of the deluge, and that of the giv- 
ing of the sacred oracles of God on Mt. Sinai's peak. 
The story of a flood is found in all nations, but ludi- 
crous images, and incongruous circumstances mar its 
sublimity, while on the lips of the man Moses what 
mental creations are produced ! His language is bare 
and sterile in its simplicity. But as he calmly says, 
" the windows of heaven being opened," what a sight is 
revealed to the mind's eye. The torrent of destruction 
rushes forth, the sun retires from the sight, and the 
surgings of the billows are heard to mingle with the 
struggles of the dying, as the thoughtful listen. And 
there is left indelibly impressed upon the mind the awful 
scene of an assemblage of horrors. That single truth 
of the flood became in the hearts of those Hebrews a 
seed of poetry, and a halo of lurid glory round the head 
of their God, which awed the nation in its midnight 
tents. It has also given for the world a new charm and 
beauty to the rainbow, a subject of thought for the 
greatest genius, and an abiding sense of the enormity 
of vice, and the glory of virtue. 

It can also be said with truth that, " upon the heights 



142 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

of Mt. Sinai were kindled the fires of the Hebrew 
genius." Here we have the circumstance creating the 
narrative which has produced such a realm of thought. 
The law was given here to Moses; a law which in some 
form has molded governments and peoples since. And 
this — with the thunders amid which it was given, with 
the millions standing silent on the plain overwhelmed 
with awe and wonder, with the voice of the eternal 
heard ringing in their ears, the descent of the favored 
Moses with shining face, and tidings of the unknown 
future — exercised a potency on the minds and lives of 
the Hebrew race and the world's thinkers, unequalled by 
any literature. And without enlarging upon the numer- 
ous instances of Scripture such as the book of Job, of 
Isaiah, and of the Psalms, whose literary fruits are 
matchless creations of imaginative fancy and sublimest 
truth, we may mention the inimitable sermon on the 
mount, and the incomparable scene on Calvary's cross. 
The former contains conceptions sublime, diction of 
matchless beauty, words of regal simplicity, studded 
with favors divine, as the stars adorn the dark blue sky. 
And the latter scene of sacrificial love and life has con- 
tained the germ of the best of the world's literature for 
2,000 years. These undying words written in Hebrew, 
Latin and Greek, " This is Jesus the King of the Jews " 
have become symbolic of the universal supremacy the 
despised Nazarene should have in all the nations of the 
earth. 

Indeed, compare these utterances and their universal 
sweep and swelling life with the tongueless silence, and 
the dust^covered pages of ancient day, or the evan- 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 143 

escent scrolls of modern hour, and they are as a bed of 
roses to a sand heap. Yes! Sweet is the scent, and 
precious the fruit of Burns' famous " Mary in Heaven." 
But only as the pansy to the rose, the fitful firefly to 
the majestic sun is it when compared with the twenty- 
third Psalm, and when compared with the book of Job 
it is as ashes to apples. Beautiful and true are Shake- 
speare's Perdita and Imogen. But in sacrificial char- 
acter they could not make one hem of a garment for the 
reclaimed Mary Magdalene, or the devout and gentle 
Dorcas. For all the odors of divine love had sweetened 
their sin-embittered lives, and the beauty of Christian 
holiness had clothed them in the robe of celestial devo- 
tion to humanity, which fadeth not away. 

And time would fail me to tell you how that as litera- 
ture it is the book of the poor and lowly, the crutch to the 
aged, the eye to the blind, the child's own book, as well 
as literature superior to all the books of earth, and 
an exhaustless source of intellectual food for the most 
gigantic mind. Why, its every voice is a creation; its 
truth gleams and glitters in matchless poetic splendor; 
it beams light on midnight darkness. Its garment has 
the charming beauty of fiction. It has pressed into its 
service the whole realm of nature — the trees and the 
beasts of the forest, the flowers of the field, the stars in 
their courses, and the fishes in the fathomless sea. 
And yet the small mind says " the Bible is a book of no 
literary merit." But the peerless British orator, John 
Bright, said, " It is the source of my wealth of diction, 
and the wings of my oratory." Coleridge said, " Study 
of the Bible will save any man from a vulgar style." 



144 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

Huxley said, "It is written in the noblest and purest 
English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of a literary 
form." Sir Matthew Hale, the greatest of jurists, said, 
" There is no book in the world like the Bible for excel- 
lent learning, wisdom, and use." And that greatest of 
American statesmen and scholars, Daniel Webster, said 
of it, " If there be anything in my style or thoughts to 
be commended it is due to my kind parents instilling 
into my mind an early love of the Bible." 

In view of these facts we ask, " What is the Bible to 
us as literature?" And I answer "matchless." 

Second. Its influence upon art is as exceptional 
and excellent as upon literature. The fine arts are 
architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. It may 
surprise us to learn that the renaissance of art has 
always been contemporaneous with the exaltation of 
religion. Taine, Lotze, and Lord, and others of the best 
living authorities upon the history of art tell us that the 
arts lost their grossness and reached their grandeur 
when their models were religious characters, and their 
purposes were Christian. Michael Angelo, the prince 
of sculpture and painting, revealed that the creation of 
character, and not merely grace and beauty in form is. 
the highest glory of art. Hence he and Raphael be- 
came, and are still, the world's masters. And in those 
sturdy, noble characters of Scripture, in the holy pur- 
poses of religious architecture were found the noblest 
ideals. Where is to be found the acknowledged realm 
of art to=day? If we agree with the best critics we will 
answer, " In that which creates, imitates, suggests, and 
reveals the spiritual." Hence the reason why the living 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 145 

pictures of today are a degradation of true art as also 
of good morals. The worth of the famous statuary by 
Michael Angelo called "The Laocoon" and the "Dying 
Gladiator " is in the expression of pain, of despair, and 
of agony apparent; and not merely in the perfect out- 
lines of the figures. And we repeat, the Scriptures and 
their holy purposes have been most fruitful in supply- 
ing these models and thus promoting the noblest art. 
In architectural sublimity and complexity, in the power 
of suggesting and expressing spiritual aspirations, what 
can surpass the Christian cathedrals of the middle ages? 

In far-sought splendor, in their influence for devo- 
tional enchantment, in matchless architectural array, 
there tower high over all, St. Mark's church at Venice, 
St. Peter's at Rome, York Minster and St Paul's in 
London, which are the cream of the world's art, and the 
monuments of matchless architecture. 

Michael Angelo's statues of Moses, the Madonna and 
her child, the rugged John the Baptist, lonely and love- 
ly in the greatness of his moral strength, have been the 
wonder of admiring artists for three hundred years. 

The greatest single picture in the world to-day hangs 
high on the wall of the Sixtine chapel in Rome, and is 
Angelo's fresco of the Last Judgment. Still greater 
and grander is the artistic triumph by the same master. 
It is a painting on the ceiling of this same chapel and is 
divided into nine fields or groups. They are judged the 
creative marvels of genius, the indescribable and inimi- 
table in painting. But whence came they? From na- 
ture? No: Genius knows nature has no moral char- 
acteristics. From the works of the free thinking infidel 



116 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

who says, "Religion is the death of thought and the 
grave of learning and art"? No: Genius is aware 
there is no spot on earth more sterile and barren of 
mental stimulus than that. Let the sceptical hear it, 
and believe. They came from this grand old book — the 
Bible. From the despised Bible story of creation came 
the first five; the sacrifice of Cain and Abel provides 
another; the story of the deluge inspires one more; the 
Hebrew prophets give one; and the story of David and 
Goliath, and the ancestors of Christ supply the rest. 
And the creations suggested to Angelo were continued 
in Raphael and others, until the inspiration of the 
Scriptures sits enthroned in art, and the thinking, 
dreaming, worshipping world beholds it in wonder and 
amazement. 

And music, as well as art and architecture, pays tri- 
bute to the exceptional inspiration of this book. 
Hadyn's "Creation," the "Darkness," his chorus 
of the " Israel in Egypt " ; Beethoven's " Mass," and 
"Pastoral"; and Handel's "Messiah" arose from the 
slumbering fires in those ethereal muses just as the 
breath of these inspiring incidents of Scripture en- 
kindled the flames. And thus the development, sublim- 
ity, and majesty of the best architecture; the beauty 
and perfection of the master pieces of sculpture and 
painting; the majestic harmonies of the illustrious 
muses, are all indebted to, and inseparably associated 
with Bible truth and tale. 

So again we ask, " What is the Bible to us?" And 
we are compelled to reply, " The book in its inspiration 
of the arts, unequalled." 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE t 147 

Third. Notice its morality. 

This is an age when people believe in men and 
morals, although that faith has not yet saturated this 
new world. This book is above all else a book of 
morality and religion. If its moral teachings are not 
superior to that of any other book it has no place in 
religion. This — to teach the world of morality unex- 
ampled, religion unparalleled — is its purpose in the 
world. As Galileo of old said, " The Bible is not given 
to teach us how the heavens go, but how sinful men may 
go to heaven." And in this book there are such pic- 
tures of moral heroes as the world has nowhere else 
seen. Do you seek for an example of manly meekness? 
Go to the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the out- 
lines of its history you will find Moses. Does your 
fretful life long for one human pillar upon which you 
can lean for patience? Then turn to the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures, and you shall find in the dawn of their 
day that old fashioned man Job. Do the young wish 
to find a young man, who, amid the surges of the putrid 
streams of blasphemy and sensualism, retained his in- 
tegrity? Then turn to even the early records of the 
Old Testament Scriptures, and you will find the pure 
and brave young man, Joseph. Do you desire to see 
how men of backbone have faced the evils of life, and 
declined to sell their souls for a dollar? Then turn to 
the pages of this book, and you will find heroic Elijah, 
dauntless Jeremiah, and the immovable Daniel. Do 
young ladies wish a female friend who possessed the 
beauty and grace of society charm, the gentleness of the 
dove with the sweetness of an angel, and without the 



148 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

cunning and coyness of the fox? Then turn to the 
New Testament Scriptures where you will find the com- 
mendable Phoebe. If we desire a perfect man whose 
enemies even dared not say, " he sinned " ; but around 
whose head there always shone a halo of moral glory, we 
may come to this book and behold the man Christ 
Jesus. Here friends is a gallery of living pictures, 
shining amid the light of the work=a=day world; 
but they stand high, and are lifted up into the niches 
for the noblest moral characters. And as such they 
have become well known to the world. Moses is as well 
known as Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar. Eli- 
jah and Isaiah are as famous as John Milton. The 
apostle Paul is better known than Shakespeare. And 
we know more of Jesus of Nazareth than of Wm. E. 
Gladstone. Yet, they are known as colossal moral char- 
acters on the hilltops of history; fit finger posts to 
guide the world to highest moral purposes. The light 
of severest criticism has been turned upon them, but it 
only revealed them as beacon lights of purity upon the 
shores of time, and their bitterest opponents have not 
dared to charge them with conscious imposition. 

And the character of the contents of the book is in 
harmony with that of its writers. 

Its moral precepts when accepted have uplifted the 
fallen, cleansed the impure, softened stony hearts, made 
giants of the timid, and heroes of the morally weak, as 
the rugged rocks have sheltered from the storm, and the 
gentle zephyrs softened the gnarled petal, and lifted the 
head of the drooping flower. 

I ask you where can be found as pure morality as in 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 149 

the ten commandments? Where grander moral precepts 
than the sermon on the mount? Where as clear a 
code of charity and love as in Paul's sermon to the 
church in Corinth? Echo answers, "Where?" Scep- 
tics answer, "Where?" and the united tongues of the 
honest hosts of a peopled universe answer "Nowhere." 

Why, in these writings are the honesty of the world's 
millennium; the peace for the fiercest passions; gener- 
osity to the perdition deserving, and love for even the 
loveless. These have shaped the character of nations 
who have received them, and made the great heart of 
peoples beat towards each other in unison with the 
Bible born principle, " Do unto others as you would 
have others do unto you." And these truths made 
Diderot, the French sceptic and philosopher say, " No 
better lessons than these of the Bible can I teach my 
child." They made Huxley, the scientist and sceptic 
say, "In the Bible there is a vast residuum of moral 
beauty and grandeur," and they made Thomas Jefferson 
say, "I have always said the studious perusal of the 
sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, 
and better husbands." 

Again we ask, "What is the Bible to us as a book 
of morals?" And we answer, "Unparalleled." 

Fourth, "What is the Bible?" Its religion. 

It is strange that in this age the essential distinction 
between morality and religion should be so much neglect- 
ed by many who should certainly know better. Morality 
is humanity's rults for right living among men. Religion 
is man's relation to, and recognition of God. There- 
fore, a person may be moral and yet an infidel; al- 



160 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

though history shows if a moral character is entirely re- 
moved from religious laws and observances it will 
become immoral George Elliot and Ingersoll are illus- 
trations of this truth. A woman who lives in an un- 
married state as mistress of a man she calls husband is 
immoral; and George Elliot did that. A man who teach- 
es that one should lie rather than suffer a little incon- 
venience or pain is immoral; and Ingersoll has repeat- 
edly taught that. Such estimates as these of chastity 
and truth give force to the immoral factories of licen- 
tiousness and falsehood which are so ruinous to human 
integrity and fidelity. 

The Bible teaches the highest possible form of relig- 
ion. The fatherhood of God, the redemption of man 
through the living sacrifice of His Son; the brotherhood 
of the race through the elder brother Jesus Christ. 
Love to one another, and the whole race, opposition to 
all selfishness, and the embrace of rigid sacrifice are the 
demands made of His followers by the God of this book- 

And these are the distinguishing principles of the re- 
ligion of the Christian Scriptures, from all the other re- 
ligions on this earth. 

An infidel has said, " The gods are never greater than 
the people who make them." And in that sentence he 
described the gods of all other religions except the God 
of the Bible, the father of us all, the Savior of all who 
repent. The world has been 3,500 years striving to 
reach the inimitable religious precepts in this book, and 
is yet far from accomplishing the task. The word "fa- 
ther " is not even known in the religious books of Buddha, 
Confucius, Shinto, and Tao. The doctrine of brother- 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 161 

hood in Buddha is never taught, and the Christian truth 
of "love one another" would be received by them 
as an insult and an outrage. Go to the Zenana huts 
upon the plains of India, where Buddhism in its 
various forms holds sway, and you will find the religion 
of forgiveness is unknown, and there, woman is treated 
no better than a galley slave, excepting by Christianity 
and Christians. Now, it is this spirit of love in the re- 
ligion of the Bible, which is the religion of Jesus 
Christ, that proves the Bible supernatural and its relig- 
ion divine. Yes, we glory that it has been founded on 
mingled love and mercy, purchased by the blood of 
Him whose name is love, and enthroned on the cross of 
Calvary, which is the cross of love. Myriads have mis- 
understood and travestied this religion of love taught in 
this old book, but its abiding conquests have been won 
in love, and all its glories are revealed through this love. 

Mohammed triumphed by the sword, and even to=day 
the choice it is offering amid the protests of Christen- 
dom to those Armenians is, Moslemism or death. But 
the religion of this book pleads in the tones of a dove 
for the choice of the soul. 

In the beautiful words of Dr. Storrs, " The religion 
of this Bible came to communities cultured in letters, 
instructed in arts, mighty in arms, but to a great extent 
morally rotten with luxury and lust. So infamous were 
they that the world to-day would expect the globe itself 
to open beneath such and swallow them up." But this 
religion in its worship, by its love, its humility, its in- 
flexible fidelity to truth, and the heroic energy of its 
faith towards the invisible master Christ; without sword 



152 WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 

or secular power struck lifeless this dissolute life and 
rose and spread over all its rays of peace, purity, and 
moral power as suns from the celestial world. And as 
Wm. H. Seward said " The whole hope of human prog- 
ress has since become suspended on the ever growing 
influence of the Bible." 

Long ago Christianity — the religion of this book — took 
possession of the western world, and resolved to trans- 
form it by this Word of God and its spirit of peace. Be- 
fore its advent, Atheism, Brahmanism, Mohammedism, 
and theosophies called culture formed their battle 
ground in the East. Contrast their respective achieve- 
ments, and you behold the word and love of the lowly 
Nazerene uplifting the barbaric Teutons, Gauls, Celts, 
and Saxons into industry and art, literature and science, 
pure morals and holy life; and they advanced from their 
state of naturalism to the heights of celestial glory; 
while with the others on yonder oriental hemisphere you 
see even to-day there hangs like a pall the veil of 
human degradation. The wheels of progress moved not 
by their force; life continued a stagnant pool, corrupt 
and corrupting all with its pestilential odors; fiercer and 
bloodier became their cruelties; higher and viler rose 
the tide of sensualism, until sensuous pleasures have 
become their promised paradise — their heaven. And 
note this well: never without this religion has one 
solitary page of history recorded the place where there 
reign true equality, liberty, and love. Therefore, as 
the religion of this Bible is the great sun and center of 
the world's bliss, whose rays dispel the darkness of sin- 
ful misery, reveal abiding happiness, pierce the night 



WHAT IS THE BIBLE? 153 

of death, and reveal the dawn of eternal day, we con- 
clude it is of divine inspiration. And no man dare at- 
tempt to quench this sun without scorching himself. 

Thus because of its achievements in uplifting the 
human race; because Jesus Christ, its source and center, 
is "the purest among the mighty, and the mightiest 
among the pure"; because of the beauties of art it has 
evolved, and the harmonies of music it has supplied; 
because its literature is the purest light of the highest 
and noblest of life, it must be what no other book is— 
the inspired Word of the eternal God, the ocean of life 
which cleanses men, the light of truth which can alone 
lead man out of his ignorance and sin, through the 
mists and darkness of doubt and death into the realities, 
certainties, and harmonies of eternal life. 

Therefore let me ask in the words of the poet Cowper : 

Now tell me dignified and sapient sir, 

My man of morals nurtured in the shade 

Of Academus, is this false or true? 

Is Christ the able teacher or the schools? 

If Christ, then why resort at every turn 

To Athens, or to Rome, for wisdom short 

Of man's occasions, when, in him reside 

Grace, knowledge, comfort, and unfathomed store? 

I ask once more, "What is the Bible to us?" And 
shall we not all answer before heaven and in this presence 
in the words of the great statesman and scholar Daniel 
Webster, "Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief, 
that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a divine reality; 
that this Bible cannot be a human production." For 
its literature, its art, its morality, and its religion prove 
its divine inspiration. 



Bible Readers Hints. 



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The Life and Words of Christ 



The Public Lite of Christ Being a Chart of Christ's Journeys 
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Present Day Primers. 

Under this general title the publication has begun of a series 
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* # * Each 128 to 160 pp., i8mo, flexible cloth, 40c. net. 

1 . Early Church History. A Sketch of the First Four 
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41 The book has a value first for the general reader ; it would 
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2. The Printed English Bible. By R. Lovett, MA 
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Gives, in brief popular style, the chief facts in the fascinating 
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3. How to Study the English Bible. By Caron 
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4. A Primer of Christian Missions. {In preparation.) 

5. An Introduction to the Greek of the New 
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ment," etc. {In preparation.) 

6. A Primer of Hebrew Antiquities, By Rev. O. C. 
Whitehouse, M.A., Professor of Hebrew in Cheshunt 
College. (In preparation.) 

7. A Primer of Assyrlology. By Rev. A. H. Sayce, 
M.A. (In preparation.) 



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Topical Outlines of Bible Themes. An Illustrative Scripture 
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The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Consisting of Five 
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The Bible Text Cyclopedia. A Complete Classification of Scrip- 
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Cruden's Complete Concordance. Large 8 vo, cloth i.oo 

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The Comprehensive Concordance to the Holy Scriptures. Based 
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The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whis- 
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A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms; or, 
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Revell's Biblical Wall Atlas. Prepared by T. Ruddiman Johns- 
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Folded style, enclosed in portfolios ... . . . net, *o.oo 

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